


Welcome to New York

by Impossibly_Izzy



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bisexual Jake Peralta, Bisexual Rosa Diaz, Bisexuality, College, Coming Out, Dorks in Love, Drinking Games, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gina is also bi, M/M, Making Out, Multi, Pining, Probably a load of minor characters, Secret Relationship, Self-Discovery, Slow Burn, So is Charles, Underage Drinking, lots of relationships tagged but it's a peralitago/dianetti fic overall, this is a very bi story okay XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2019-09-17 05:22:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 43,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16968456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impossibly_Izzy/pseuds/Impossibly_Izzy
Summary: 'I’m Jake. I’m majoring in criminology.’‘Criminology.’ Terry nodded thoughtfully. ‘How come?’‘Because… I love Die Hard?’On the first day of college, Jake meets Amy and Gina meets Rosa. But it's not easy for the two couples - there is far too much bisexual college drama for them to deal with.





	1. Pilot

‘Jake!’

Jake looked up to see Gina waving at him from across the dining hall, and shot her a relieved grin as he carried his tray over to where she was sitting.

‘Thank god,’ she said, putting her phone down on the table. ‘The only company I’ve had since I got here is my roommate and she is a _nightmare_.’

‘Mine isn’t moving in until today,’ said Jake, ‘but he already added me on Facebook, Instagram, _and_ Snapchat, and sent me fourteen pictures of his dog.’

‘Sounds like a loser,’ said Gina. ‘Looks like we’re gonna be stuck with each other until I find someone decent around here.’

Jake laughed; there was something comforting about Gina’s familiar irritability amid the chaos and general new-ness of the first day of college. His mum had dropped him off yesterday and he had spent the evening decorating the breeze-block wall on his dorm room with posters and meeting some other people from his corridor. They had all been fine – Jake considered himself to be pretty good with new people – but he hadn’t really clicked with anyone yet. Jake had been looking forward to college for months but, now that he was here, he was finding it to be more nerve-wracking and overwhelming than he had expected.

But here was Gina, with her disparaging comments and her auburn hair and her sweater with a wolf on it. He had known her since he could remember, although they hadn’t seen each other as much as he would have liked over the past few years.

‘There’s Rosa as well.’ He said.

‘Who’s Rosa?’ Gina was looking at her phone again, eating salad with the other hand. Jake didn’t know why anyone would voluntarily eat salad; he was currently delighted by the fact that he could eat nothing but french fries without his mom there to reprimand him.

‘I went to high school with her.’ He reminded Gina.

‘Hi, is this seat free?’

Jake looked up to see a tall black guy with ludicrously well-defined muscles standing beside their table.

‘For those biceps?’ said Gina. ‘Absolutely.’

He took the seat beside Gina, and Jake forced himself not to stare at the guy’s arms. Or his pecs.

‘I’m Terry,’ the guy said, before setting to work on his gigantic plateful of food.

‘I am… delighted to meet you,’ Gina directed the comment to Terry’s muscles.

Terry gave her a questioning look.

‘She’s also Gina,’ Jake supplied. ‘And I’m Jake. I’m majoring in criminology.’

‘Criminology.’ Terry nodded thoughtfully. ‘How come?’

‘Because… I love _Die Hard?’_ Saying it out loud, Jake realised that he should have come up with a more impressive reason – people at college were bound to ask him.

‘Okay!’ said Terry with what seemed like a forced smile. ‘I’m majoring in animation. Terry _loves_ animation.’

‘Cool,’ said Jake. ‘So you’re gonna, like, make Pixar movies?’

‘Something like that, yeah.’ Said Terry.

‘Cool!’ said Jake again.

‘What about you?’ Terry said to Gina.

‘Huh? Oh – psychology.’ She said.

They chatted their way through lunch as Jake ate his plateful of just french fries, which turned out not to be as exciting as he had thought. He was going to have to branch out if he was going to make it through four years of college – maybe branch out into pizza. Plus pizza had tomato sauce, which was a vegetable, so his mom could suck it! (Jake mentally apologised for mentally telling his mom to suck it)

It turned out that Terry was a sophomore, and lived in a house off-campus. Within minutes of learning this, Gina had talked him into hosting a party there. After they had eaten, Terry showed Jake and Gina around campus for a while, until Jake got a series of excited texts from his roommate who had apparently arrived.

‘I’m gonna go meet this guy,’ he said, ‘but I’ll see you guys later.’

He walked back to his dorm, where he got slightly lost and ended up in the wrong corridor before retracing his steps and eventually finding his room.

‘Hello!’ Jake’s roommate dropped an armful of blankets and stumbled on a cardboard box in his eagerness to cross the room. ‘I’m Charles! Nice to meet you!’

‘Hey!’ said Jake.

Charles was a head shorter than Jake, dressed in a brown sweater and pants in an only-slightly-different shade of brown, and he was giving Jake a delighted grin.

‘I’m so excited to finally meet you,’ said Charles. ‘I bet we’re gonna be best buds – maybe we can braid each other’s hair and talk about the boys we like!’

‘Okay?’ said Jake, slightly bemused.

‘Or, you know, whatever,’ said Charles.

Jake’s phone vibrated – he had a message from Rosa.

**Rosa:** Going to a bar later where no one gets carded wanna come?

‘Hey,’ said Jake, ‘do you want to come to a bar with me and some of my friends tonight?’

‘Sounds brilliant!’ Charles beamed.

 

Jake could see the irony of going out underage drinking on his first weekend of studying criminology, but he figured it couldn’t hurt. When he and Charles arrived at the bar they met up with Gina, who had changed out of her wolf sweater into a bomber jacket which also had a wolf on – embroidered on the back.

‘This is my night look,’ she explained.

The bar – ‘Shaw’s’, according to the neon sign outside - was just starting to get busy, a mix of students and adults filling tables and barstools. Bare lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, casting a warm glow across the room. Gina went up to the bar and ordered a cocktail like she’d done it a hundred times, and Jake bought himself a beer, trying not to look nervous.

‘Hey.’

Jake turned around to see Rosa, dressed in her usual all-black outfit, with a cute Latina girl that Jake didn’t know.

‘Hey Rosa!’ he said. He held out his arms in case she wanted to hug him; she didn’t.

‘This is Amy,’ she said, tipping her head to the girl beside her. ‘She’s my roommate.’

‘Hi,’ said Amy, holding out her hand. Jake shook it. ‘Amy Santiago.’

‘Noice,’ said Jake, and then he realised that he should introduce himself too, so he added, ‘Jake Peralta.’


	2. Three Drink Amy

‘Do I look okay?’ Amy smoothed down her skirt and grimaced at her reflection in the mirror.

Amy definitely wasn’t dressed appropriately for a bar. She was wearing a navy dress with a white collar – they were going to realise that she wasn’t twenty-one. She probably looked about eleven.

‘You look fine.’ Rosa wasn’t even looking at her. She was sitting on her desk, lacing up her combat boots. _That_ was what people wore to bars: black skinny jeans and leather jackets and dark lipstick.

‘I don’t know.’ Amy toyed with the idea of taking her hair out of its ponytail but decided against it.

‘Come on, let’s go.’ Rosa jumped down from where she was sitting and opened the door. Still unhappy with her choice of outfit, Amy grabbed her purse and followed her – she certainly didn’t want Rosa to leave without her.

Rosa didn’t say anything as they walked to the bar. Amy didn’t mind, she was busy looking around, trying to take everything in. Her neck hurt from tipping her head back to look up at tall buildings. She had never been to New York before except for her college interview, and she couldn’t wait to explore, to see the sights. She wondered if Rosa would want to do touristy things together – probably not.

When they got to the bar, Amy couldn’t stop looking around for anyone who might clock her for a minor and throw her out. She definitely should have worn something different. She smoothed her skirt again as she followed Rosa to a group of people beside the bar.

Rosa was talking to a guy in a leather jacket – why did everyone around here have leather jackets?

‘This is Amy,’ said Rosa, ‘She’s my roommate.’

‘Hi,’ said Amy. She held her hand out to the guy, and he shook it. ‘Amy Santiago.’

‘Noice,’ he said, grinning. His mouth was enormous. ‘Jake Peralta.’

‘Are you a freshman too?’ said Amy.

‘Yep,’ he said. ‘Oh, this is Charles – my roommate – and this is Gina.’

‘Hi,’ said Amy again.

Rosa turned around and shoved what looked like a glass of coke into Amy’s hand. ‘Got you a drink.’

‘Thanks,’ said Amy, relieved to have something to do with her hands. She took a sip; it tasted like permanent marker. She tried not to make a face.

Gina found a table for all of them, and soon she and Rosa were talking about something, and Charles was leaning across the table on his elbows and gazing at Rosa like a love-struck puppy. Amy sipped her drink. Her head was starting to feel weird.

‘Hey,’ said Jake. ‘Bet you can’t beat me at darts.’ He was standing over her, leaning on the table with one hand and giving her a sly grin.

‘Oh, _do_ you?’ Amy shot back, getting to her feet.

As it turned out, she could. In fact, she _owned_ him at darts. And somehow she had finished her drink, and Jake was buying her another one, and she was challenging him to a game of table tennis, and she had no idea who was winning but they _had_ managed to keep up a rally of thirty-four, which she thought was pretty impressive.

And then Jake challenged her to a made-up game which involved throwing ping-pong balls at the darts board, and she was convinced she could beat him at that too, until they both got told off by a grumpy middle-aged bar patron.

Jake took his jacket off; underneath he was wearing a t-shirt that said “Fitness? More like fitness whole pizza in my mouth”.

‘I LOVE your shirt!’ said Amy, because for some reason it seemed like the funniest thing she’d ever seen.

‘Thanks!’ said Jake. ‘Hey, wanna see if I can beat you at pool?’

‘I don’t know how to play pool,’ Amy admitted.

‘Me neither!’ Jake looked delighted.

They tried to figure it out for a while, before eventually giving up in favour of trying to throw the balls into the pockets from the other end of the table. And then Amy was buying each of them another drink, and then she had the excellent idea to challenge her new friend to a dance battle. By this point her head was spinning. She’d never got properly drunk before, and the world seemed to tilt around her every time she moved, but nevertheless this seemed like the perfect time for a dance-off.

So they danced. They swayed and they bobbed and they spun around, and Amy did the macarena dance to a song that definitely wasn’t the macarena, and Jake did the robot, and Amy tried too moonwalk and stumbled into a table, which was just about the funniest thing that had ever happened. Jake made a dance move out of finger guns, and did something fancy with his feet, and Amy tried to copy it and nearly fell over again.

And then Jake took her hand and spun her around, and his hand was so big and warm around hers. She leant against him as she laughed, she could feel his heavy breathing under his slightly-damp t-shirt.

‘Amy.’ And now Rosa was there – where did Rosa come from?

‘Hey Rosa,’ Amy giggled. She stepped away from Jake, leaning a steadying hand on the wall.

‘Drink this, you lightweight.’ Rosa pressed a glass into Amy’s hand.

‘Oh? What’s this?’

‘It’s water, dummy.’ Said Rosa. ‘Drink it, we’re leaving soon.’

Leaving? But Amy and Jake still had so much dancing to do – she wanted to hold his hands more. ‘Why?’

‘Bar’s closing.’

‘Aww, Rosa!’ Amy didn’t want to leave.

‘Come on – drink that. Get your purse.’

Rosa was gone again. Amy drank the water – she hadn’t realised how thirsty she was.

‘We’re not done with this dance battle, Peralta,’ she said.

‘Absolutely not,’ he said. ‘I am gonna own your _butt_ at this dance battle. Wait, not in a weird way. I respect women!’

Amy laughed at him, and then she made her way back over to their table and found her purse. God, she was woozy. She let Rosa lead her out of the bar and back to their dorm room, and then she stumbled around their room getting ready for bed, too spacey and cheerful to feel self-conscious in front of her roommate.

Her phone was lighting up with notifications.

 **Facebook** : Jake Peralta has sent you a friend request

 **Instagram** : jake_with_a_vengeance has requested to follow you

 **Snapchat** : jake_with_a_vengeance has added you as a friend

Amy fell asleep smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a bunch of nerds XD  
> Thanks so much to everyone who has read this and left kudos - hope you liked this chapter!  
> Izzy


	3. First Day of College

The first thing Gina did when she woke up was text Rosa.

 **Gina:** Last night was lit, we should do that again

While she waited for a reply, Gina looked people up on Facebook. Amy was a massive nerd – no surprises there. Charles had a dog in his profile picture and some kind of pasta as his header. Rosa’s page had strict privacy settings on it, and Gina _definitely_ wasn’t going to send her a friend request like some kind of clingy bitch.

She texted Jake instead.

 **Gina:** Why did you never tell me you had cool friends at high school?

While Jake and Amy had been drunkenly indulging in their truly godawful dancing the night before, Gina had been with Rosa. (And Charles, but they’d both been trying to ignore him.) Rosa wasn’t interested in the normal freshman small talk of where-are-you-from-and-what’s-your-major, which was delightfully refreshing.

‘My dream career is professional dancer,’ Gina remembered saying, ‘but only if I can be queen of the universe in my spare time.’

Usually people laughed when Gina said things like that, but Rosa said, ‘Tight.’

Later, Rosa said, ‘I like your jacket.’

And Gina said, ‘Wolves are my spirit animal.’

And Rosa said, ‘Why?’

And Gina said, ‘Because they’re sensuous animals and they’re in tune with the energy of the moon.’

And Rosa nodded and bought them both another drink. She liked to talk about Gina, which was perfect, because Gina liked to talk about herself.

When her phone buzzed, she thought it would be Jake.

 **Rosa:** Yes

 **Rosa:** But without Charles

Gina laughed to herself, remembering Charles’ besotted gazing at Rosa the night before. He had been tripping over himself trying to buy her drinks, oblivious to Rosa’s complete disinterest.

She texted Rosa back with a thumbs-up emoji, and then dragged herself out of bed; she had her first ever college class at eleven. Her roommate was still asleep, thank god, everything but her blonde hair hidden under a blanket.

Gina got dressed and went down to the dining hall, hoping she might see Terry again. She didn’t really expect to though – he lived off-campus and had no real reason to come for breakfast. The only familiar face she saw was Jake’s.

‘Hey,’ he said, as she took the seat opposite him. He looked like he’d fallen out of bed and into his rumpled plaid shirt; he yawned into his coffee. ‘I just saw your text.’

‘Finally.’ Gina rolled her eyes.

‘So you like Rosa?’ Jake raised an eyebrow at her.

Gina stirred her oatmeal. ‘She’s the only person I’ve met so far who’s actually on my level.’

‘Sure,’ he smirked. Gina ignored him.

‘Jake! Gina!’ Charles plonked himself down in the seat beside Jake. ‘There you are!’ Gina was relieved – Charles might be short, creepy, and dressed head-to-toe in beige, but at least he could distract Jake.

‘What are you _eating_ , man?’ Jake made a face at Charles’ plate.

‘Turkey bacon with jam, you should try it!’ said Charles. ‘It’s like bacon and syrup taken to the next level.’

Gina took out her phone.

 **Gina:** Also no drunk Amy and Jake to babysit

 **Rosa:** Sounds good

She tried to hide her smile, eating her oatmeal instead. When we heard a phone buzz, she grabbed hers, but it turned out to be Jake’s.

‘Is that Amy?’ Charles tried to see the screen. ‘You two were so cute together!’

 **Rosa:** Tonight?

Gina sent back three thumbs-up emojis in a row. Maybe she was willing to look like a _bit_ of a desperate bitch.

 

Jake’s first class – maths – made his brain hurt. Or maybe that was all the caffeine he’d had.

After Amy and Rosa had left the bar last night, Jake had been treated to Charles rambling about Rosa on the way back to their dorm room, and for another hour once they got there.

‘I really think we have something!’ Charles kept saying.

It was strange, trying to fall asleep with Charles snoring on the other side of the room. It was like the sleepovers he used to have when he was a kid, except that this was for an entire _year_.

Jake didn’t know what time he had fallen asleep, but he had woken up exhausted and slightly hungover, and drank at least three cups of coffee, maybe four. Somehow, he felt extremely tired and extremely energetic at the same time.

He got to his second class - some history thing that he’d only taken to get his required credits - and was waiting outside the lecture theatre when he saw a familiar set of biceps approaching him.

‘Hey, Terry!’

‘Jake! How’s it going?’

‘I’ve already had my first hangover _and_ my first caffeine headache of college!’ said Jake, proudly.

‘Congratulations?’ Terry looked dubious.

‘Are you in this class too?’ said Jake.

‘Yeah, Terry needs history credits.’

And then someone said, ‘Hey, Peralta.’

He looked around – it was Amy, wearing a skirt and a sweater and a backpack. She looked like she belonged on the front of the college brochure.

‘Hey!’ He said, ‘Santiago – back to finish our dance battle?’’

Jake introduced Amy and Terry to each other. They filed into the lecture theatre, Terry struck up a conversation with some other kids, and Amy turned to Jake and said, ‘I’m sorry about last night – I’m such a lightweight. I don’t normally drink.’

Jake laughed. ‘It’s fine – it was good. I particularly enjoyed your flossing.’

‘Oh god.’ Amy pretended to cover her face, laughing.

 They took seats next to each other, and Amy pulled a binder out of her backpack. ‘I love new stationery.’ She remarked, running a hand over it. Jake pulled out his notebook – it was already battered, and his orange soda had leaked on it.

‘ _That’s_ your notebook?’ said Amy with disdain. ‘And do you chew _all_ your possessions, or just your pens?’

Jake put the end of his pen in his mouth and sucked it, waggling his eyebrows at her. He started sliding it in and out of his mouth in a way that he hoped was weird and sexual, as opposed to just weird.

‘Ugh,’ she rolled her eyes; it was adorable. ‘I would have gone easier on you last night if I’d known you were only fourteen.’

Jake pointed at her. ‘That’s rude. I’ll have you know I am _extremely_ mature.’

‘Oh yeah?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Jake wasn’t really sure where he was going with this. ‘I’ve done loads of grown-up things, like working at a diner. And doing sex with women!’

‘Doing sex with women?’ Amy raised her eyebrows sardonically. ‘Wow, now I’m impressed.’

‘Yep. Adult, female women.’ Jake didn’t know what he was saying anymore, but Amy was still laughing at him so clearly he was doing something right.

And then the professor arrived, and Amy took attentive notes while Jake doodled a picture of a helicopter, and then added a sea monster eating it. It was a shitty drawing, but it seemed like a better use of his time than trying to write down what the professor was saying.

And Amy told him that taking notes was important, and Jake teased her, and she smiled when she thought he wasn’t looking.

After class, Terry accompanied Jake and Amy to the dining hall, where they ran into Gina and Charles. And even though Jake had only known most of them for a single day, it felt like it had been much longer. They just clicked together: Amy and Jake made fun of each other, and Charles sucked up to everyone, and Gina rolled her eyes at them, and Terry was slightly bemused by them all.

Jake wished that he could stay at this table all day, but eventually everyone had a class to go to. But Terry invited everyone around to his apartment to play some kind of video game, so they would be seeing each other again before long.

‘Maybe Amy will bring Rosa,’ Jake said, as he and Charles walked to class together.

‘Yes! You could be my wingman!’ said Charles.

‘Sure,’ said Jake. But he was just thinking about seeing Amy again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've bumped the rating up to M - not for this chapter, obviously, but for some stuff I've been writing for later on in the story. I hope that doesn't put anyone off - I will be letting you know at the beginning of each chapter if it contains anything sexy so anyone can skip it if it makes them uncomfortable.  
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
> Izzy


	4. Art History

Amy’s last class of the day was art history – finally the class she’d been waiting for. She had been looking forward to all of them, of course, but she had been most excited about her major.

She arrived fifteen minutes early and got a seat near the front of the room. She laid out her binder, paper, and a pen, and distracted herself for a while by looking at Instagram. A guy sild into the seat next to her.

‘Hi,’ he said, ‘this seat isn’t taken, is it?’

Amy put down her phone. ‘Nope.’

He smiled warmly. ‘Good.’

‘I’m Amy Santiago,’ she said. She would have shaken his hand, if they hadn’t been sitting next to each other.

‘Teddy Wells,’ he said, ‘Nice to meet you.’

‘Are you majoring in art history too?’

‘I am,’ he said, ‘I’m especially interested in abstract expressionism.’

They chatted for a bit about art history; Teddy seemed like he knew a lot about it, and it was exciting to be talking to someone who liked the same subject as her. Their conversation was a little stilted, but when the class ended and Teddy said, ‘See you next time,’, Amy was glad she would have someone to sit with.

Afterwards, Amy ate in the dining hall, keeping a book open with the rim of her plate. After dinner, she went up to her dorm room and wondered what she should wear to Terry’s. Would Jake think it was weird if she changed? Would Jake notice what she was wearing either way? Did she want him to?

Rosa showed up with a bottle of whisky. Amy wondered if she had a fake ID, but she didn’t ask. She was a bit scared of Rosa.

‘I need the room tonight,’ said Rosa.

‘That’s fine,’ Amy pulled out her hairband and started brushing her hair, wondering if she should leave it loose. ‘I’m going out anyway. But in the future maybe we should have some kind of system for what we do if someone wants to room to themselves? Ooh – I could draw up a rota!’

‘Whatever,’ said Rosa. Amy decided to stick with the same outfit, but to leave her hair untied. She put on some lip-gloss.

Did she like Jake? Or was she just excited to have made a friend at college so quickly?

She certainly had fun with him. She liked teasing him, making fun of each other, and she liked that he was as competitive as she was. She liked how he was better than her at dancing, and worse than her at darts.

But was she into him? He had curly hair and he was just the right amount taller than her, and he had the biggest, goofiest, smile she’d ever seen. Hmm. Results inconclusive.

Amy got the subway to Terry’s apartment by herself, looking up the route on google maps. She knocked on the door, her chest tight with a mix of nerves and excitement. There were noises behind the door, scuffling of footsteps, and then it swung open and Jake beamed at her.

‘Hi Amy!’ Charles popped up behind Jake’s shoulder.

‘Hi, guys.’ She was glad she hadn’t changed – neither of the guys had.

‘Santiago,’ said Jake, ‘looking forward to losing at some more games?’

‘Uh, I seem to remember beating you yesterday.’ Amy shut the door behind her, and followed Jake and Charles into the combined living room/kitchen. Terry was sitting on the arm of an old and battered couch, talking to a guy with an afro.

‘Hey, Amy!’ said Terry when he saw her. ‘Guys, this is Raymond – my roommate.’

‘Hello.’ Raymond didn’t look particularly impressed by his roommate’s new friends.

Amy held out her hand to him. ‘Hi – Amy Santiago. I’m an art history major.’

Raymond shook her hand; his grip was firm. ‘I too study art history.’

‘Really?’ said Amy.

‘Yes. I am a PHD student.’

Amy couldn’t believe her luck – a postgrad student of her subject who just happened to live with one of her new friends? Maybe they could talk, maybe he could be some kind of mentor for her. Amy loved the idea of having a mentor.

‘Well,’ said Raymond, ‘nice to meet you.’

He nodded at her, and left the room.

‘Why do you introduce yourself to everyone like that?’ said Jake.

‘It’s polite,’ said Amy.

Jake was laughing at her. ‘I’ve never met someone my age who shakes hands with everyone.’

Amy refused to back down. ‘I took a hand-shake seminar last year,’ she said.

‘You’re making that up.’

‘I am not!’ she said. ‘I got an A-plus.’

They played a game that Terry had, which involved using their cell phones to answer questions on the TV screen. And Jake set his screen name to ‘bewbs’, and Amy rolled her eyes at him, and Jake said ‘Jeez, don’t be such a prude, Amy!’ and she tried not to let herself get distracted by the way his eyes sparkled and his cheeks dimpled when he was teasing her. And of course the two of them got extremely competitive over the games, but Terry had more practise and Charles turned out to be surprisingly good at them.

Eventually, Terry admitted that he needed to study, and Amy, Jake and Charles headed back to the subway station together.

‘I wonder if Raymond will mentor me,’ Amy said, almost to herself.

‘God, you’re a nerd,’ said Jake.

‘Can I just say,’ Charles piped up, ‘you two would make an adorable couple.’

Jake laughed uncomfortably. Amy got out her phone to figure out which train they needed to get home, but Jake said, ‘I’ve got this – I’m from Brooklyn.’

‘I’ve never been to New York before,’ said Amy.

Jake did a fake gasp. ‘Someone will have to show you around sometime.’

‘I guess someone will,’ said Amy.

‘Adorable.’ Charles said again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, fabulous readers! (And I hope you have a fabulous day even if you don't celebrate Christmas)  
> Izzy


	5. The Paris of People

**Jake:** You coming to Terry’s?

 **Gina:** Nope I’ve got plans

 **Gina** : I’m way too important for your little get-together

Gina smirked to herself as she put down her phone and picked up her hair curlers. Her roommate was out, so Gina had been left in peace to blast Beyonce as she got ready for her evening with Rosa. She applied her lipstick and put on her denim jacket, before giving herself one last once-over in the mirror. Damn, she was looking good.

Rosa lived in a dorm a couple of blocks away, a nicer one than Gina’s. Lucky bitch. Rosa opened the door to her, dressed all in black again, her dark curls as wild as her eyes.

‘Hey,’ she said. Gina looked around the room; it was obvious which side belonged to who. Amy’s bed was neatly made, pristine stationery and new textbooks laid out on her desk. Rosa’s side had a black and white movie poster and an artsy picture of a motorbike on the wall, and the only thing on her desk was a bottle of whisky.

‘Where did you get this?’ said Gina.

The corner of Rosa’s mouth twitched. ‘I have my methods.’

‘So,’ Gina sat down on Rosa’s bed, ‘you gonna make me a drink?’

She watched as Rosa produced two glasses and a bottle of coke. (Drinking two nights in a row – she really was experiencing college, wasn’t she?) Rosa made even simple actions look both intimidating and graceful – like a wolf. No wonder Gina was so intrigued by her.

Gina thought about Charles’ besotted gazing at Rosa last night. The idea that Rosa would ever want to go be with someone like him was laughable - Rosa needed someone on her level, someone deep and challenging.

Rosa handed Gina a glass and sat beside her on the bed, cross-legged. She had a scar cutting across her right eyebrow; it was badass.

‘So what are we gonna do?’ said Gina.

‘We could… watch a movie,’ suggested Rosa.

‘Interesting.’ Gina sipped her drink. ‘What kind of movie?’

‘I like old movies,’ said Rosa. She grabbed her laptop from beside her bed and opened it.

Gina didn’t know anything about old movies. ‘You choose one,’ she said.

‘I’ve been planning to watch this one,’ said Rosa.

‘Let’s watch it then.’

They watched a movie. It was black and white, and everyone had a weird old-fashioned accent, and the soundtrack was lame, but Gina wasn’t paying much attention to the movie anyway. She was distracted by Rosa’s presence beside her, by her aura, by the warmth she could feel where they were almost touching.

On Rosa’s single bed, there wasn’t much space for both of them. They leaned against the wall, the laptop on the bed in front of them, Gina’s legs to the side, Rosa’s folded in front of her. Their shoulders bumped each other. Their thighs almost touched.

 **Jake:** Are you with Rosa?

And then a whole row of winky faces.

Gina turned her phone off.

The alcohol was making her whole body feel warm and electric. And she definitely wasn’t paying attention to the movie anymore, she was hyperaware of the space between her and Rosa.

They’d gone a long time without talking. It wasn’t something Gina was used to, she liked to talk, liked people the listen to her. Rosa was sipping her drink, watching the movie, and all Gina wanted was for those eyes to be on _her._

Because she wanted everyone’s eyes on her. Because she deserved it.

That’s what she would have said, if anyone had asked.

After a while, Rosa poured them each another drink. The whisky burned Gina’s throat. After a while, she set the glass down on the floor. When the credits rolled, Rosa shifted away from Gina a little and set down her drink. Gina thought she should say something about the movie – she wanted them to talk like they had last night.

‘What did you think?’ she said.

Rosa didn’t answer. Instead, she took Gina’s face in her hands and kissed her.

For all of her hard, angular behaviour, Rosa was very soft to the touch. Her lips were gentle, cautious, her hands loose enough that Gina could have pulled away if she had wanted to.

She didn’t want to.

She leant into Rosa, kissing her back, letting one of her hands get lost in Rosa’s hair. Thank god she hadn’t finished her second drink – Gina didn’t want her senses dulled, she wanted to feel this kiss with every nerve ending she had. Rosa tasted like alcohol. She pulled Gina closer, one hand migrating to Gina’s back. Gina sucked Rosa’s bottom lip; Rosa sighed against her mouth.

Eventually, Rosa pulled away.

‘Oh dang,’ said Gina, ‘why didn’t you lead with that?’

Rosa reached for her drink. She was smiling, and Gina realised that she’d never seen Rosa smile before. She didn’t say anything, just sipped her drink. She had smudges of Gina’s lipstick around her mouth.

Gina waited for Rosa to put her drink down, and then leaned in and kissed her again.

 

As Gina walked home that night, she couldn’t stop grinning. She and Rosa had lost track of time. They hadn’t done anything besides kiss, and then talk a bit, and then kiss a bit more, but for tonight that had been enough. Gina felt like she must be giving off light.

She fumbled with the key as she tried to open the door to her dorm room. Inside, it was pitch black.

‘Shut _up_ ,’ groaned her roommate, as Gina fumbled to take her shoes off. Whatever – she was a bitch and she couldn’t touch Gina’s happiness.

Without turning the light on, Gina chucked her jacket and jeans onto her desk chair and crawled into bed. She squeezed the power button on her phone and waited for it to boot up.

Rosa hadn’t texted her, Gina decided not to text her either. Play it cool, Linetti.

She ignored Jake’s messages, but scrolled through her other notifications.

 **Facebook:** Charles Boyle has sent you a friend request

Ugh. Fine.

 

The next day, Gina ate lunch with everyone. Rosa, Jake, Amy, Charles, Terry. They seemed to be becoming something of a group – how had this happened? It had been a long time since Gina had been part of any kind of group with Jake. As Rosa slid into her seat, she caught Gina’s eye and smiled with only her eyes and the faintest hint of a twitch of her mouth. Gina looked away and stole one of Jake’s fries.

Charles had somehow set things up so that he was sitting next to Rosa; he kept trying to talk to her about the differences between various types of artisanal ham.

‘…but the best way to experience them is at a farmers’ market,’ he was saying, ‘or at the ham and pickle festival.’

‘There’s a _ham and pickle festival_?’ said Jake.

‘“Ham and Pickle Festival” is the name of my new band,’ said Rosa.

‘Ooh!’ Jake’s face lit up. ‘We should start a band!’

‘You play any instruments?’

‘No,’ said Jake, ‘but I’m an amazing rapper.’

Gina rolled her eyes. So did Rosa.

‘I used to play the saxophone,’ volunteered Terry.

‘I can sing _and_ dance,’ said Gina.

‘So, I was thinking, would you like to…’ Charles tried to get Rosa’s attention back onto him.

‘Amy, any instruments?’ said Rosa, ignoring him.

‘Actually, I can play the piano.’ Amy said.

‘Ugh, nobody wants to listen to a band with a piano in it,’ said Gina. ‘So far it’s all about Terry’s sax and my stellar vocals.’

‘Do _you_ play anything?’ Jake said to Rosa.

‘Maybe.’ Rosa’s face betrayed nothing.

‘What is it?’ said Amy. ‘Guitar? Violin? Ooh, cello?’

‘I’m not gonna tell you.’ Rosa took a stubborn bite of her sandwich.

‘I’m gonna find out eventually,’ said Amy.

Charles was still trying to get Rosa’s attention, and Gina was watching the whole thing unfold while she ate her salad.

After lunch, everyone headed off to their various classes. Gina had half an hour before her first psych class, but she decided she might as well go over now. Maybe she could meet some more psychology majors before class.

‘Hey, Gina!’ She looked around to see Charles following her. She sighed.

He caught up with her. ‘Hey, can I ask you for some advice?’

Gina kept walking towards the psych building, Charles followed. ‘Is it anything to do with freaky food festivals?’

‘No, it’s about… it’s about Rosa.’

Charles looked so much like a pathetic, beige, puppy that Gina took pity on him. ‘Okay. Ask away.’

‘Do you think I have a chance with her?’

‘Honestly?’ said Gina. ‘No.’

‘Oh.’ Charles looked wounded. ‘Why?’

Because she was a wolf and Charles was a little yappy dog. Because she wore black leather, and he wore brown corduroy. Because she tasted like whisky when she kissed Gina’s mouth, and her lips felt like fire when she kissed Gina’s neck.

‘She’s out of your league.’

Gina didn’t even know if Rosa liked guys.

‘But I should ask her out anyway?’

‘That is _so_ not what I said.’

‘But it’s worth a shot, right?’

‘Charles,’ she said, ‘That is the exact opposite of what I’m saying.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, almost to himself, ‘I think I’m gonna ask her out. Thanks Gina – good talk!’

‘You didn’t listen to anything I said!’ Gina protested. But Charles was already gone.


	6. Fantasy Threesome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is a reference to a joke in an early episode of the show, not to an actual threesome. Soz. XP

Having a roommate was exactly as awesome as Charles had always expected – it was like having an automatic best friend. He and Jake ate breakfast together, they exchanged high-fives when they saw each other between classes, they talked about all kinds of things.

One evening, they watched Jake’s favourite movie, Die Hard, together.

‘Do you want some snacks?’ Charles said, ‘I have chips.’

‘What _flavour_ are these?’ Jake made a face.

‘Oxtail soup! They’re from Eastern Europe.’

‘They taste like balls,’ said Jake.

So maybe he didn’t share Charles’ sophisticated palette – in fact, he mostly seemed to live off pizza and artificially coloured sodas – but he was fun. And he was the coolest person Charles had ever been friends with, possibly the coolest person he’d ever met.

Except Rosa, obviously. _Rosa._ Every time he thought about her, Charles’ heart felt like it was trying to dance inside his chest. And he thought about her a lot – about her curly hair, about the way she always wore black jeans and leather jackets, about how she always sat cross-legged or with one of her feet up on something, even at lunch.

‘Why don’t you just ask her out?’ said Jake. He’d just found the sheet of paper that Charles had filled with doodles of the name ‘Charles Diaz’.

‘I’m going to,’ he said, ‘I’m just trying to decide where I should take her.’

‘What are you thinking?’ Jake sat down on his bed.

‘Well, I thought I might take her to a concert, she probably likes-’

‘You can afford to go to a concert?’ Jake said, raising his eyebrows.

‘Well, not really,’ Charles admitted.

‘Why don’t you just take her for a drink or something?’

Charles considered it. He had wanted to do something _special_ for Rosa, to show her how much he liked her, how much he was willing to do for her.

‘I want to do something… _bigger_ than just a drink,’ he said.

‘Does a first date need something that big?’ said Jake. ‘The last time I took a girl on a date, we went to 7-Eleven for slurpees and split the cheque.’

‘They have cheques at 7-Eleven?’

‘No, but that’s not the point,’ Jake said, ‘the point is, we didn’t do anything huge.’

‘And how did that relationship turn out?’ said Charles.

‘Well,’ Jake thought about it. ‘Not great. She stood me up for our second date because she was hooking up with another guy – but that’s not the point either! My point was, Rosa might be put off if you suggest something that big.’

‘You might have a point,’ Charles conceded. ‘Back in high school, girls always said I went too big too soon. My friends called it “going Full Boyle”.’

‘Exactly!’ Jake grinned. ‘So try being more chill with Rosa. Ooh, maybe you could take her for a slurpee!’

‘I think I’ll pass on that one, Jakey.’

But Charles did think about what Jake had said, and decided to try it. Being chill, that is, not 7-Eleven.

He saw Rosa most days at lunch or dinner; their fledgling group of friends ate most meals together in various combinations. But he didn’t get a chance to talk to her alone until Saturday, almost a week after he had first met her.

They were at Shaw’s bar again, the whole group standing around the pool table and trying to play as teams. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but the rest of his team was berating Charles every time he failed to pot a ball, and Gina was keeping up an overly sarcastic running commentary.

‘Will Terence’s incredible biceps imbue him with incredible pool skills?’ she was saying as Terry took the cue and had his turn. ‘Apparently not. Shame on you, Terrence.’

‘He’s not even on our team!’ said Jake.

Charles watched Rosa as she stood on the opposite side of the table taking a swig of her beer. He was going to talk to her, he was going to do it. As Jake took his turn, Rosa went up to the bar for another drink. Charles followed her.

Rosa was leaning against the bar, tapping her debit card against it as she waited for the bartender.

‘So,’ said Charles, folding his arms and leaning sideways on the bar in an attempt to appear casual. He was pretty sure it didn’t look at all casual, and was making him seem even shorten than usual, so he stood up straight. ‘Would you like to go for a drink with me?’ he blurted. He tried not to let his hope spill out of him and make things messy, but it was probably showing on his face.

Rosa turned to look at him, her face set. ‘No.’

Oh. Just like that. _No._ Ouch.

‘Sorry.’ Charles didn’t know why he was apologising – it just seemed like the right thing to do.

‘It’s fine.’ Rosa paused, and then said, ‘I’m just not romantically or sexually interested in you.’

‘Okay,’ said Charles, ‘Yes, of course. Obviously.’

God, he was stupid. Of course she wasn’t interested in him.

Charles turned and started walking, without a plan for where he was going. He ended up at the door, and decided that he might as well go home. He didn’t want to be around the rest of them right now, anyway.

 

Charles was lying on his bed eating Eastern European potato chips when Jake got back.

‘Hey buddy,’ said Jake. ‘Where did you go?’

‘Rosa said no.’ Charles sat up and sighed, brushing chip crumbs off his shirt.

‘Oh no!’ said Jake. ‘I’m sorry, man. Getting rejected sucks.’

‘I just… really like her, you know?’ said Charles.

‘I know. Maybe she just needs to get to know you a bit better?’

Charles considered it. ‘Maybe.’

Jake brightened suddenly, like he had an idea. ‘Wanna go get slurpees?’

Despite everything, Charles smiled. ‘Absolutely.’


	7. Amy and Teddy

As the first weeks of the semester passed, Amy fell into something of a routine. It was good – she liked routines. She went to her classes, she ate lunch and sometimes dinner with her friends, she tried to talk to Rosa when they were in their room. She read, she worked, she let Jake make fun of her. Her feelings towards him had remained uncertain, but he had never showed any sign that he wanted to be anything more than friends, and she had accepted that.

As September fell away, the weather grew colder and the signs of fall were beginning to creep into New York City. As Amy walked to her art history class, the first fallen leaves crunched under her ankle boots.

She sat down in her usual seat, getting out her things as she waited for Teddy.

‘This is for you.’ Teddy set a Starbucks cup down on Amy’s desk. ‘I was getting one and I thought you might want one too.’

‘Thanks!’ Amy said, a little surprised. Teddy smiled at her as he took his seat beside her.

They had been sitting together in all of their art history classes for the past couple of weeks, as well as in biology, which they also had together. And as much as Amy liked Teddy, she hadn’t invited him to sit with her and Jake and the others at mealtimes, and she hadn’t invited him to Shaw’s with them. They mostly talked about the classes, about the professors, about the assignments, but they had talked a bit about their lives as well. It was mostly basic things; a level above small talk, but not the kind of fun she had with Jake and the others.

Amy took a sip of her coffee.

‘Bets on professor Scully being late?’ said Teddy.

Amy laughed – their professor was chronically late, always showing up with a different excuse. ‘He’ll probably have the wrong room again,’ she said.

The professor _was_ late – the time the class was supposed to start came and went. Amy and Teddy talked about the reading which led to a discussion of whether or not Picasso was overrated, but eventually Amy was beginning to wonder if the professor was ever going to arrive. This was her favourite class, and she wanted it to start.

‘I can’t believe he’s nearly fifteen minutes late,’ she groaned.

‘I know,’ said Teddy, ‘What if he doesn’t show up?’

They lapsed into silence for a moment, and Amy checked the time again. Where _was_ Scully?

‘Hey, Amy…’ Teddy said, awkwardly ruffling his hair. ‘How would you like to go for dinner with me sometime?’

‘Like, in the dining hall?’ Teddy had never expressed an interest in hanging out outside of class before.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I meant more like a date.’

‘Oh.’ A date. Amy had just been asked on a _date._ ‘Yes, of course. I’d like that.’

‘How about tomorrow night? I know a good place – I’ll pick you up from your dorm.’

‘Okay, yes. Tomorrow.’

‘Great. I’ll pick you up at seven.’

Scully arrived, with what looked like soup spilled down his shirt and no viable explanation for his lateness, but Amy couldn’t focus on the class properly. She was too distracted by the idea of going on a date with Teddy. A date with Teddy _tomorrow._ She tried to look at Teddy without him noticing – did she like him like that? She’d never really thought of him as anything other than a classmate, a casual friend.

It would be alright, she reassured herself. It’s not like she had agreed to marry him – it was just dinner. Maybe afterwards, she would know how she felt about him.

‘Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess,’ she said when the class ended.

‘Looking forward to it,’ Teddy said with a smile.

Thinking about their date made Amy’s stomach twist – was she excited or nervous? Mostly she just felt uncertain, of her feelings towards Teddy, of his expectations, of what she wanted from this date.

She was still thinking about it when she got to the dining hall where she usually ate with her friends; she didn’t notice Jake until he was right in front of her.

‘Hey, Santiago,’ he said.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Peralta. Hi.’

Amy tried to put Teddy out of her mind as they queued up for food, distracting herself with telling Jake that he needed to eat some real vegetables if he didn’t want to get scurvy.

‘Fine, _mom_ ,’ he said, but he went for pasta with at least _some_ vegetables rather than his usual junk food.

They found the others already at a table together, saving two seats for them.

‘It’s finally happening,’ Gina said when they sat down, ‘Terrence is hosting a party!’

‘Ooh, when?’ said Amy.

‘Halloween!’ said Terry.

‘So start working on your costumes, bitches!’ Gina added.

‘I’m so excited,’ said Charles, ‘I’m obsessed with Halloween.’

‘Please don’t say you’re going to dress as some kind of food,’ said Gina.

‘Maybe Charles should be ham and I should be pickle!’ said Jake. ‘And together we’re the ham and pickle festival!’

‘Please.’ Charles rolled his eyes. ‘My costume is going to be much better than that.’

‘I don’t have to dress sexy, do I?’ Amy said, a little nervous. ‘I’m not a big Halloween fan. Am I going to be the only person who isn’t drunk and naked?’

‘ _The only person who isn’t drunk and naked.’_ Jake smirked at her. ‘Good news, guys, I finally figured out the title of Amy’s sex tape.’

‘Seriously?’ said Amy. ‘Jake Peralta, you are the grossest person I know.’

Jake gave her a double finger-guns. ‘That’s the title of _my_ sex tape.’

‘You’re both ridiculous,’ Rosa said.

‘Amy, it’s fine,’ said Terry. ‘You can wear whatever you want.’

After lunch, Amy and Jake had classes near each other, so they walked together.

‘Hey,’ he said, ‘me and Charles are gonna have people round to watch movies in our room tomorrow – wanna come?’

‘Sure,’ said Amy. And then she remembered – tomorrow night. Teddy. ‘Wait, sorry, I can’t. I have plans.’

‘What plans?’ Jake laughed. ‘Organising your binders?’

‘Hey!’ said Amy. ‘Organising things is a perfectly valid activity. But no.’

‘So what is it, then?’

For some reason, Amy’s chest clenched at the thought of telling Jake about Teddy. ‘I’m going on a date actually,’ she admitted.

‘Oh, cool.’ Jake’s expression was hard to read. ‘Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool.’

‘ _That_ cool, huh?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Yeah, a date. Cool.’ There was a moment, when Jake looked off-balance somehow, but then the moment was over and he was grinning and saying, ‘I guess you need someone to make that sex tape with, right?’

And, like that, the tension evaporated. Amy smacked Jake’s arm and laughed. ‘Shut up.’

‘I gotta tell you, it’s not a good idea to hit me,’ said Jake, ‘because it sort of turns me on, and that would be inappropriate right now.’

Talking with Jake was so easy. It was like a perfect ping-pong rally, a game of bouncing back whatever weird thing came out of his mouth. It was enough to distract Amy, once again, from her nerves and confusion in regards to Teddy.

Amy tried valiantly to focus on her classes the next day, but it was hard to stop thinking about her date that evening. What was she going to _wear_? She didn’t even know where Teddy was taking her, and she was worried that she was going to give him the wrong impression.

But what was the right impression, anyway? Even Amy didn’t know what she wanted from this date.

The day seemed to rush by, and then it was the evening, and Amy only had forty-five minutes until Teddy arrived. Amy had the room to herself, but she wished Rosa was there to tell her to get over it and just choose an outfit.

In the end, she wore the same blue dress she had worn to Shaw’s on the first night. She figured it would work for various levels of smart or casual, and it wasn’t too short, didn’t show too much skin. Her phone buzzed, making her jump.

 **Teddy:** I’m downstairs

Oh god, was it seven already? Amy slipped on her shoes and grabbed a cardigan and her purse. She met Teddy downstairs. He was wearing a shirt and a blazer – it suited him.

‘Hi,’ she said.

‘Ready?’ He smiled at her.

Teddy took her to a restaurant not far from college, and Italian restaurant with dim lighting and soft music playing. A candle flickered in the centre of their table.

Trying not to show her nerves, Amy started talking about art history and their assignments. And Teddy was polite, almost charming, and he talked about high school and about his family, and he asked about hers and he listened attentively, and he insisted on paying when the cheque came. The evening ticked all of the good date boxes.

‘I had a good time with you tonight,’ Teddy said as he walked Amy home.

‘Me too,’ she said, truthfully. It had been nice, spending time with Teddy. He was a nice guy. The whole thing was nice.

It hadn’t been electrifying; no sparks had flown between them. But it had been nice.

When they got back to Amy’s dorm, Teddy said, ‘Shall we do this again sometime?’

And Amy said, ‘Sure.’

Teddy leant down and kissed her, so fast that she barely felt his firm lips on hers before he pulled away again.

And Teddy said, ‘I’ll see you in biology tomorrow.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you meant to write a character whose defining trait is being boring? Also why would anyone want Teddy when they could have Jake XD


	8. Lovers, Together, In Beds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter that prompted me to rate this fic M because it does have some sexual content and swearing - it's really not that bad but I thought I'd let you guys know anyway!

Since their first whisky-fuelled kiss, Gina had been spending as much time with Rosa as she could. Of course, they saw each other most days when they ate lunch with the rest of the group, and there were the weekly trips to Shaw’s and the occasional film night, but she and Rosa had been going to each other’s rooms whenever they could be sure they would be alone. Amy, being a massive nerd, spent quite a lot of time studying in her and Rosa’s room, but thankfully Gina’s roommate was out most nights. She passed through a lot, coming to get changed or collect her books, but she barely spent any time there. It suited Gina perfectly.

Usually she and Rosa talked for a while, sometimes they would drink, occasionally they would watch a movie. Mostly they made out.

Tonight, Gina was supposed to be watching movies with Jake and Charles, but she had said no and had made up a dance society meeting when Jake asked what she was doing. Her roommate was wherever it was she went in the evenings, and probably wouldn’t be back until late.

When Rosa knocked on the door, Gina jumped up to open it. She’d already turned off her phone and set up music on her laptop – she had prepared everything like a little nerd.

‘Hey,’ said Rosa. She used her foot to push the door shut behind her, and then Gina took hold of the lapels of Rosa’s leather jacket and stood on tiptoes to kiss her. And Rosa pushed her backwards onto the bed, straddling her laps, her thighs pressed close against Gina’s.

And Gina pulled her down, pulled them both all the way onto the bed, toyed with the edges of Rosa’s jacket until Rosa let her take it off. She wanted to peel back the layers between them, wanted Rosa all to herself without these stupid clothes getting in the way.

Rosa kissed her way down Gina’s neck, her unruly curls in Gina’s face, and she tugged at the hem of Gina’s t-shirt, sliding it up and kissing Gina’s exposed stomach. And then she sat up, pulled her own top off, pulled Gina’s off as well, and when they kissed again Gina felt Rosa’s skin against her own.

And then Rosa said, ‘Can I take your jeans off?’

And yes, she could take them off. And Gina wrapped her bare legs around Rosa’s waist and pulled her down on to her, and this was good: Rosa on top of her, Rosa’s jean’s digging into her thighs, Rosa’s impatient mouth on hers.

Everything was ragged breaths and needy hands, scorching skin on scorching skin. Gina closed her eyes, felt Rosa pushing down her bra and following it with her mouth, panted out a breathless ‘oh, _dang_ ,’ because that felt so fucking good.

And Rosa’s hands felt even better; she knew exactly what she was doing with them. And Gina pushed her just far enough away so that she could undo Rosa’s belt buckle, and they were a tangle of limbs and kisses and hands fisted into hair.

Rosa was sitting up, Gina in her lap, and Gina buried her head in the crook of Rosa’s neck and listened to the sounds she made when Gina slipped a hand between them.

‘Didn’t I tell you I was a sensuous woman?’ she said.

Rosa let out a panting laugh. ‘Stop killing the mood.’

‘I’m just being myself. You love it.’

And all Rosa said in reply was, ‘oh, _fuck_ , Gina.’

Afterwards, they lay side by side, Rosa’s arm underneath Gina’s head. Almost cuddling.

‘We should do that again,’ said Rosa.

‘Tomorrow?’ Fuck not being a desperate bitch.

‘Can’t,’ Rosa said. ‘I’m seeing this guy tomorrow.’ She paused. ‘That’s cool, right?’

‘Yeah, it’s cool.’ But Gina felt a slight twinge in her stomach at the thought of Rosa seeing some guy. Not a twinge of jealousy so much as a twinge of _why didn’t I know about this?_

Gina had never been under the impression that she and Rosa were exclusive, but Rosa hadn’t explicitly mentioned anyone else before. And Gina felt weird, knowing about the others. Her stomach twinged with a feeling of _I want to be the most important._

She sat up, grabbed her bra from where it had ended up on the floor, started putting it on. Rosa sat up too, her lips a tight line.

‘You should probably go before my roommate comes back,’ Gina said, lightly.

Rosa started picking up her clothes and quickly pulling them on. Gina put on her underwear and t-shirt, then got up and went over to her desk to turn the music off.

‘See you,’ said Rosa, and bent to kiss Gina quickly.

‘Bye,’ said Gina.

She didn’t see Rosa the next day; she ate lunch with Jake and Charles. As far as she knew, Charles was still stupidly infatuated with Rosa (or not so stupidly – Gina could see where he was coming from) but Gina made sure to steer the conversation away from her as much as she could.

It wasn’t weird that she wanted to be the most important to Rosa, was it? Gina wanted to be the most important to everyone, the most important in general. This wasn’t any different.

Jake kept on texting Gina, asking about her and Rosa. He was annoyingly observant.

 **Jake** : I can see you making flirty eyes at Rosa

Gina denied it, of course. But other times, it seemed like they were making it way too easy for him to spot.

 **Jake:** Where you at???

 **Jake:** Rosa’s not here either

 **Jake** : Coincidence?

And then a load of smirk emojis. Gina tried to shake him off – Rosa didn’t like sharing information about her personal life, and that definitely included the information that they were hooking up. And Gina wasn’t about to tell Jake or any of the others if that wasn’t what Rosa wanted.

But it seemed like Jake was onto them – and he already knew that Gina liked girls. She had come out to her friends when she was a freshman in high school, and her mum not long after that. She had never really needed to hide her sexual orientation – if anyone wanted to be a dick about it, that was their problem. So Gina had talked to Jake about it. She’d never officially Come Out to him, it was more of a series of casual comments. _So, I met this girl…_

And Gina had known that Jake would be fine with it, but she hadn’t expected him to be quite so _passionately_ accepting of her bisexuality. She had expected him to be more ambivalent, like her other friends. But Jake seemed delighted, and was desperate to tell her that he was proud of her, and to ask all kinds of questions about queer stuff, even when it came to things that definitely weren’t her area of expertise.

Jake was a very enthusiastic ally. So enthusiastic that Gina had started wondering if maybe Jake was queer as well.

She’d been waiting for him to say or do something to prove her right (So, I met this guy…), but it had been four years, and he hadn’t said anything. Gina stuck by her suspicions, though, because Gina knew what was up even when other people didn’t.

She saw Rosa again the day after that, and it was like nothing weird had happened between them. They drank illegal whiskey and watched the beginning of an old movie, and had to turn it off halfway through because they were too distracted by each other. And, when Rosa mentioned going out with other people, Gina decided not to let it get to her.

Over the next couple of weeks, she did a pretty good job. She made herself focus on Rosa, and on the other things going on in her life. Classes, friends, finding an amazing outfit for the Halloween party. It was approaching quickly, and Gina was determined to be the best-dressed person there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone who has commented or left kudos :) Also, I made a new tumblr @impossiblyizzy for all my writing stuff/b99 stuff, if anyone wants to follow me XD


	9. The Halloween Party, Part 1

It was the Saturday night before Halloween – the day of Terry’s party. The first party of college! Jake couldn’t believe it had taken this long to get to.

He and Charles went over together. Charles was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and a black tie – when Jake had asked him what he was dressed as, Charles had talked for an hour about a musical that Jake knew nothing about. For his part, Jake was dressed as John McClane from _Die Hard_ , but he had thrown on his leather jacket over the vest, partly because it was cold and partly because he felt underdressed with his entire arms exposed.

They arrived at the door to Terry’s apartment, and Jake could hear music coming from inside even before Terry opened the door to them.

‘Hey guys!’ said Terry. ‘Nice costume, Jake! And Charles, are you an… office worker?’

Charles started talking about musicals again, as they stepped inside the apartment.

When Jake had been here before, they had hung out in the combined living room/kitchen, but now all the doors were propped open for people to spill out into corridor and the four bedrooms. That had definitely been a good move – it was already crowded, there was no way all of these people could have fit in the living room.

‘Help yourselves to drinks!’ said Terry, before someone else ambushed him with conversation.

‘Rosa’s here,’ said Charles, craning to see through the crowded room. ‘Do you think I should talk to her? I think I’m going to talk to her.’

Jake thought that was probably a bad idea, but Charles was already gone. Jake’s phone buzzed with a text.

 **Amy:** Are you at the party yet?

 **Amy** : Teddy and I are on our way.

 _Teddy and I_. The way Amy texted with perfect grammar made Jake smile; it was almost enough to distract him from the twisting he felt in his stomach ever time he remembered that Amy was bringing Teddy to the party. Her _date_.

Amy had been out with Teddy a few times over the last few weeks, but Jake was yet to meet him. Which was fine, as far as he was concerned. He didn’t want to see this guy’s stupid face, hear him talking about art history, see him and Amy holding hands or whatever else it was they got up to.

Jake decided to distract himself with a drink, and was in the process of grabbing a beer when he noticed a bottle of orange soda on the counter, next to a selection of spirits. He could have orange soda _with alcohol in it._ And that was extra great because, if he was being honest, he didn’t like beer all that much.

It turned out that orange-soda-and-vodka was like normal orange soda, but worse. But Jake liked the way it spread warmth across his body, so he kept drinking it.

‘Getting your dink on?’ Jake looked up to see Gina, wearing a silver bodysuit and black jeans under a huge, fluffy grey jacket. And wolf ears.

‘Yep.’

Gina poured herself a drink. ‘See ya!’ she said, and then disappeared out of the kitchen.

 

‘Hi, Jake.’ It took him a moment to realise that it was Amy talking to him – usually she greeted him less timidly. And usually she called him _Peralta._

‘Hey,’ he said.

Amy was wearing a black dress and was holding a sparkly witch’s hat, which she kept nervously turning over in her hands. ‘Jake, this is Teddy.’

‘Hi.’ Teddy stepped forward with a white-toothed smile and a firm handshake. ‘Nice to finally meet you, Jake.’

He looked like a guy out of a commercial. Or – worse – an _infomercial_. What did Amy see in this guy?

Trying to stop himself saying something rude, for Amy’s sake, he settled for, ‘What’s your costume?’

‘Vampire,’ said Teddy, gesturing at his shirt and blazer, ‘I have some fake fangs, but I’d rather not put them on.’

Well, of course. Teddy was far too smug to cover up his gleaming, cosmetically-whitened teeth.

‘Who wants a drink?’ said Amy. ‘Teddy? I’m going to get a drink.’

 

Amy didn’t like Halloween. Trick-or-treating as a kid hadn’t been so bad, but she hated the sexy costumes and too much alcohol of grown up Halloween parties. She had worn the simplest costume she thought she could get away with: a dress that she wore all the time, and a cheap witch’s hat.

She had been relieved that Teddy didn’t want to go all-in on a costume either, and had actually been quite excited at the idea of a date with him that involved something other than discussing school-related subjects over dinner. Their dates were nice, but maybe something different would be good.

So far, she had been wrong. She and Teddy had only been at the party for ten minutes, but already Teddy and Jake were acting snippy with each other, and Amy was halfway through her first drink in the hopes that alcohol would make the whole situation less uncomfortable. Beside her, Teddy was drinking beer while Jake tried to explain _Die Hard_ to him.

‘Amy Santiago,’ said a deep, smooth voice. Amy looked up to see Terry’s roommate, Raymond, and a red-haired guy she hadn’t met before. ‘My fellow art history student.’

‘Hi.’ Amy tried to restrain herself from beaming; she hadn’t expected Raymond to remember her. ‘How are you?’

‘I am well,’ he said, impassive as ever. ‘But I forget myself. Amy, this is… Kevin.’

‘I’m Raymond’s boyfriend.’ Kevin held out his hand, and Amy shook it delightedly. Kevin was wearing a tweed jacket, his only concession to Halloween a pair of sparkly devil horns that looked out of place on his head. Raymond was wearing a suit and no fancy dress at all, and Amy appreciated both of them for it.

Happy to have two intellectual upperclassmen talking to her, Amy cast around for something to keep their attention. This was Raymond’s apartment – how hard could it be?

‘Are those your cookbooks?’ she tried. ‘I have that cookbook. What did you think of the, uh, linguine recipe?’

‘Those are not mine,’ said Raymond. ‘I have no interest in cooking.’

‘Oh,’ said Amy. ‘No, great. Me too.’

‘Hey, Amy.’ Teddy appeared at her shoulder with two bottles of beer. ‘Want a pilsner?’

‘I’m not much of a beer fan,’ she said, flicking her eyes to Raymond and Kevin to check that they were still there.

‘Seriously?’ said Teddy. ‘But pilsners are like, the only thing worth drinking! Me and my dad actually brew it – I can’t believe we’ve never talked about it.’

‘I would love to hear about that sometime,’ Amy said with as much sincerity as she could muster. ‘But I’m really not a beer drinker.’

‘Okay,’ said Teddy. ‘I’ll see if Jake wants this!’

‘Would you prefer some wine?’ said Kevin.

Not only had he and Raymond not disappeared, they apparently wanted to spend more time with her. Amy was flattered. ‘I’d love some.’


	10. The Halloween Party, Part 2

Several people had told Gina that she was looking fierce, sexy, and gorgeous as hell, but she already knew that. Not that she would ever object to a compliment, but there was one person at this party whose opinion Gina valued above the rest, and that person wasn’t paying any goddamn attention to her.

When Gina had arrived, Rosa had made intense and fleeting eye contact with her across the room. It was enough to make Gina’s heart dance with excitement. But then Rosa had turned back to the guy she was talking to, a guy with a leather jacket and dark curls. He almost looked like the male equivalent of Rosa, except way less hot.

Gina got herself a drink, talked to some other people, stayed aware of where Rosa was. She wanted to feel Rosa’s eyes on her, wanted to be told how good she looked. Her eyes kept flicking back to Rosa.

Rosa was wearing her usual black-denim-and-leather outfit, but with a pair of silver cat ears in her hair. She looked stellar.

Eventually, Gina allowed herself to be distracted by a game of Cards Against Humanity that had sprung up in the kitchen. And she was winning, because nobody could match her dark creativity. She drank, and she laughed, and for a moment or two she stopped thinking about Rosa.

After a while, Gina got bored of the game and got up to go to the bathroom. She fixed her hair in the mirror and reapplied her lipstick, before stepping out into the hallway. And Rosa was there, just Rosa, no curly-haired guy in sight.

‘Tight wolf costume,’ Rosa said, and Gina could hear the approving undertone to her seemingly-impassive voice.

They were alone in the corridor, just them and dim lighting and the sound of music and voices floating in from the rest of the flat. Gina had never found herself getting lost in someone’s eyes before, but she got lost in Rosa’s.

Rosa leant in and kissed her, and Gina pulled her closer, wishing that they could forget the party and do this all night. But then a door opened, some drunk guy stumbled past on the way to the bathroom, and Rosa said, ‘Wanna get a drink?’

‘Sure.’ Gina followed Rosa back to the kitchen. The game of Cards Against Humanity had dissolved, the crowd of people in the kitchen instead gathered around a game of beer pong between Terry and one of his roommates. ‘The Monster Mash’ was playing out of the speakers.

Rosa poured each of them a plastic cup of rum and coke. Gina sipped hers – it was strong. Rosa always made strong drinks, and she still managed to out-drink everyone around her.

‘There you are!’ The unsexy dude version of Rosa was back. When Rosa turned to him, he took her face in his hands and kissed her right in front of everyone, and Gina felt that twinge in her stomach again. When they broke apart, the guy said, ‘Hey, wanna go make out in a stranger’s bedroom?’

Gina didn’t stay to see what Rosa said. She crossed the kitchen, squeezed Terry’s bicep, loudly declared that she was on his team, and downed a cup of beer when his opponent landed a ping-pong ball in it.

 

It was ten o’clock, and Charles had spent most of the party gazing at Rosa from across the room, and absolutely none of it actually talking to her. He had been drinking beer in an attempt to bolster his courage – _certainly_ not for the taste. Cheap beer did not agree with Charles’ sophisticated palate.

Rosa was sitting on the couch, talking to a guy with curly hair. Charles didn’t like the look of that guy. Rosa had been with him all evening, as far as he could tell, including one point when they two of them had disappeared together.

‘Are you still pining after Rosa?’

Charles looked up to see Gina standing beside him, looking at her phone as she sipped her drink.

‘What? No!’

‘Liar,’ Gina said, without looking up.

‘Fine,’ said Charles, ‘I still like her. I wish she’d give me a chance.’

‘Maybe you should try being less creepy. Like stop staring at her.’ Gina slid her phone into her purse, and followed it with a corkscrew that Charles was ninety-five percent sure didn’t belong to her. And then she wandered off, leaving Charles alone.

He looked at Rosa. Gina was right – he needed to stop staring at her from across the room. He needed to talk to her, show her what she was missing.

He downed the rest of his beer. And when he saw the guy sitting with Rosa get up and head towards the bathroom, Charles saw his moment and took the guy’s seat.

‘What do you want?’ said Rosa. God, she was so beautiful. This close, he could smell the delicious sent of her coconut shampoo – she smelled like coconut ice, or a coconut macaroon.

‘I just wanted to… talk,’ Charles said lamely.

‘Please don’t ask me out again,’ she said. Was it really that obvious? Was his desperation written on his face?

‘I just think we could be really good together!’ Charles blurted out. ‘And I just really like you, and you’re so beautiful, and you’re the coolest girl I’ve ever met…’

Rosa gave him a look that plainly said, _shut up._

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I just… really, really, like you, Rosa.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘But I need you to leave me alone.’

Every time Charles talked to Rosa, he felt like he was getting kicked in the stomach. Her rejections felt like blunt force.

He got to his feet, and walked past the curly-haired guy. Charles looked around for Jake, couldn’t find him, looked for Gina and couldn’t find her either. Feeling miserable, he got himself another drink. He went looking for food, something to drown his sorrows in, and ended up eating yoghurt. The fridge contained way too much yoghurt.

‘Hey.’ It was Gina.

‘She said no again,’ Charles said dejectedly into his yoghurt. Gina sat beside him at the kitchen counter.

‘What the fuck are you eating?’

‘It was all I could find,’ Charles said, flatly. ‘I don’t even care. I’m too sad to care about food.’

‘This is what you need.’ Gina poured two shots of vodka, and passed one to Charles. She tapped her own shot glass to his, and then downed it. Charles did the same; it felt like it was scalding his throat.

‘You know Rosa’s banging multiple people right?’ said Gina.

‘Yeah,’ said Charles, and then thought about it. ‘No. How many people?’

‘ _I_ don’t know,’ said Gina. ‘But she’s definitely banging that guy with the crazy hair, probably others.’

‘I don’t want her to bang lots of people.’ Charles was starting to feel woozy. The beer had slowly been nudging him from sober to tipsy, but the vodka had shoved him firmly in the direction of being drunk. ‘I just want her to be with _me_. I want to be special to her.’

‘But you’re not.’ Gina poured another pair of shots. ‘I don’t think anyone’s special to her.’

Charles downed his second shot. And then someone dragged Gina away for a game of something, and Charles got to his feet and almost fell over.

‘Are you okay?’ It was Amy.

‘Gina got me drunk.’ Charles started giggling, because it suddenly seemed funny. He was drunk – _so_ drunk. He’d never been this drunk before. College was crazy!

Charles wandered through to the hallway, and Jake was there. Jake! Charles’ roommate and new best friend!

‘Jakey!’ he said. Jake grinned at him.

Charles leaned against the wall beside Jake, steadying himself. It felt like the world was spinning around him.

‘How are you? How is your party?’ Jake laughed at his own words. ‘I am having a nice time. A _noice_ time! I’m drunk and I didn’t fight Amy’s boyfriend even though I wanted to.’

‘Amy’s got a boyfriend?’ said Charles. ‘That’s so sad. You and Amy are meant to be together.’

‘He sucks and his face is stupid.’

 ‘Rosa doesn’t like me,’ Charles said. ‘I don’t think she’s ever going to like me.’

‘That sucks too,’ said Jake. ‘I want you to be happy, man.’

God, Jake was the best. How had Charles found such a good friend?

‘At least I’ve got you.’ Charles turned to look up at Jake – he needed Jake to know how much this meant to him. ‘You’re my best friend.’

Charles stood away from the wall, and almost fell over. He looked down at his feet, trying to get them to hold him up.

Jake grabbed his shoulders, steadying him. ‘You’re my best friend too.’

Charles turned his face up, and Jake’s was right there. And, just like that, they were kissing.


	11. The Halloween Party, Part 3

Well, this was weird. But also, weirdly good? Jake’s alcohol-muddled brain couldn’t make sense of it. The alcohol was numbing his lips and tongue and everything was sloppy and wet, but for some reason he didn’t want it to stop. He fisted one hand into the back of Charles’ shirt, pulling him closer.

A noise behind him – footsteps. Jake hastily pulled away from Charles, almost lost his balance, steadied himself on the wall as he wiped saliva from his mouth with the back of his hand. A guy – Jake didn’t know him, thank god – walked past them, and Jake wondered if he should say something to Charles, apologise maybe. But he didn’t have to, because Charles grabbed Jake by the lapel of his jacket and dragged him through a doorway. It was dark, musty – were they in a closet?

Charles used his grip on Jake’s jacket to pull him down and kiss him again. And Jake pushed Charles up against the closed door, pinned him to it, kissed him with clumsy lips and too much tongue. And Charles was pulling him closer, sliding his hand up Jake’s back under his jacket.

And Jake kissed Charles’ jaw, his neck, his ear, and Charles moaned and said, ‘Oh _god_ , Jake.’

The sound of his best friend saying _that_ brought the weirdness of the situation crashing back onto Jake. He pulled away.

‘This is weird. Is it?’ he said. ‘I feel like this is weird.’

Charles flicked the light on; he was dishevelled and he had a very obvious red mark on his neck, courtesy of Jake’s mouth. Seeing it freaked Jake out even more. He stumbled backwards, hoping that Charles couldn’t tell how turned on he was.

‘Jake, I’m sorry,’ said Charles. ‘I didn’t want to make it weird, I just…’

‘No, it’s fine.’ It wasn’t fine. It was weird. Jake pushed past Charles and stumbled out onto the landing.

‘Hey, Jake!’ It was Amy, holding a drink in one hand and clinging onto Teddy with the other. Jake ignored them, walked into the bathroom, locked the door and splashed cold water on his face.

It didn’t make any difference. He was still drunk, and in the bathroom mirror he could see that his face was flushed, his hair tousled. Jeez, what was he doing? Had he really just been making out with _Charles_? In a _closet_?

Charles was Jake’s friend. And his roommate. And he was a _guy_.

And then Jake sat down on the bathroom floor, suddenly feeling quite ill, and leaned his head against the wall.

 

‘Aha!’ said Amy, ‘Raymond’s reading _Great Expectations_ , and I have too! Well, I will have, as soon as I read it.’

‘Babe, can we just go?’ said Teddy. He had never called her ‘babe’ before tonight, and maybe Amy would have been pleased if she hadn’t been so distracted by her quest to find something to talk to Raymond and Kevin about. She had talked to them for a while, but they had got bored of her, and Amy had ended up searching the apartment for things she had in common with them.

‘We just got here!’ she protested. ‘I’ve only had two drinks. And I didn’t get another chance to talk to Raymond!’

‘Why does it matter so much to you?’

Amy stopped searching through Raymond’s books, and looked at Teddy. He was leaning against the wall, a bottle of beer in his hand, looking at her with beseeching eyes.

‘I just…’ said Amy. Guilt was beginning to creep into her stomach; she had invited Teddy to this party full of people he didn’t know, and had proceeded to neglect him for most of the evening. ‘You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,’ she said.

Teddy put down his drink. ‘Why don’t you come back to my dorm?’ he said.

‘Okay,’ said Amy. ‘Let’s go.’

Amy stopped in the kitchen to say goodbye to Raymond and Kevin, who were sitting at the counter drinking wine. She almost said something about _Great Expectations_ , but restrained herself. She didn’t see Jake or any of the others, but that was okay, because she knew she’d see them again soon.

She and Teddy walked back to his dorm together. His room was empty – his roommate was at another Halloween party, almost everyone was. Amy looked at Teddy’s sparse décor, and tried to think of something to say about it, but she didn’t have to, because Teddy kissed her.

It was warm and gentle, and Teddy tasted like pilsner. After a while, Amy broke the kiss and took Teddy’s hand so that she could lead him over to the bed. They kissed some more, and Teddy took her by the waist and chastely and politely pressed her into the bed. His hands never left her waist, and hers never left his shoulders.

After a while, Teddy’s roommate knocked on the door, and Amy sat up and straightened her dress. As she walked back to her own dorm, she wondered why Jake had been acting so strangely when he had pushed past her in the corridor back at Terry’s. Maybe it was because he so obviously didn’t like Teddy.

 

The party was beginning to die down at last and two of Raymond’s roommates had already disappeared to their bedrooms, leaving Raymond to begin clearing up the kitchen. Terry and Kevin were trying to help, but both of them were fairly inebriated.

‘That party was lit,’ Terry said, not for the first time. ‘We should have more parties. Terry _loves_ parties.’

Raymond wasn’t sure that more parties were such a good idea – there had been far too many strangers wandering into his bedroom for his liking. And he had caught one of the guests drinking his expensive wine out of the bottle.

‘Go to bed, Terry,’ he said. ‘I will finish this.’

‘Thanks, man.’ Terry stumbled out of the room, leaving just Raymond and Kevin.

‘Hello,’ said Kevin, entirely unnecessarily. He pressed a sloppy kiss to Raymond’s lips.

‘You are clearly drunk,’ Raymond said.

‘That’s an accurate observation.’ Kevin giggled, and then said, ‘But you’re drunk too.’

‘Maybe a little,’ Raymond conceded. He went back to rinsing beer bottles to be recycled.

‘I think Amy has a crush on you,’ said Kevin.

‘That is ridiculous,’ said Raymond. ‘Miss Santiago knows that I am uninterested in women, and that I am already in a relationship.’

‘She has a crush on your brain,’ said Kevin. ‘And who can blame her?’

Raymond deposited the empty bottles in the recycling bin and dried his hands on a dishcloth. ‘Oh yes?’

Kevin leant in and kissed him again. He was intoxicated and ridiculous, but, in a way, it was quite lovely.

Kevin was playing with Raymond’s tie. ‘I think we should go to your bedroom,’ he said.

‘That would be…appropriate.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the time that I was writing this chapter back in December, I went looking for Jake/Charles fanfiction and found a lack of it which I found weird considering how much Charles seems to have a crush on Jake XD This particular fic isn't gonna spend much time on it, but I DO have another Jake/Charles fic coming soon, if you're into that, so watch this space!  
> Izzy


	12. The Morning After

Jake woke up feeling like he hadn’t slept at all. He was exhausted, his head hurt, his stomach ached. The floor was too hard underneath him, the sun was too bright. His mouth tasted like death.

He sat up, making his head spin, and realised that he’d been woken up by the door opening. A blonde girl in a black dress, holding a pair of high heels in one hand, was looking down at him.

‘What are you looking at, mop-head?’ she snapped.

‘Jake,’ Gina said sleepily from her bed, ‘meet my roommate, Eleanor.’

‘Ugh,’ was all Jake could say. Eleanor ignored them both, grabbing some clothes and disappearing out of the room again.

‘Remind me what I’m doing on your floor?’

Gina sat up in her bed, wrapping the duvet around her like a cape. It reminded Jake of the sleepovers they used to have.

‘You insisted that you had to leave immediately and dragged me away from some other psych majors. They were _obsessed_ with me,’ she said.

‘Oh, yeah.’ The events of the previous night were beginning to come back to Jake.

‘And you refused to go back to your dorm,’ Gina added. Jake remembered – he hadn’t wanted to see Charles, couldn’t stand the idea of sleeping in the next bed to him after what had happened.

Actually, he still didn’t want to see Charles. He didn’t want to see the lips that he had kissed, the hickey he had left on his friend’s neck. How long could he avoid Charles, considering that they lived together? Maybe he’d have to start staying out until after Charles went to bed, and leaving before he woke up – that could work, couldn’t it? How much sleep did Jake need, anyway?

‘I guess I should go before your roommate gets back.’ Jake got unsteadily to his feet.

‘Heck yes,’ said Gina, lying down again and turning away from him. ‘I’m going back to sleep.’

Jake walked back to his dorm as slowly as he could. He thought about going back to sleep when he got there, but Charles might be there, and anyway, he was already feeling too awake. He stopped in the dining hall for coffee instead.

He sat by himself, wondering what he would say to Charles if he saw him. Should he laugh it off as a meaningless drunken escapade? That _was_ all it had been, anyway – Jake didn’t want to make out with Charles again, and he certainly wouldn’t have done it if he had been sober. But what if it had meant more than that to Charles? Hadn’t he said that he always got too serious too quickly? Oh, _god_. Jake rested his face in his hands, not caring what anyone around him would think.

And on top of the what-did-it-mean-to-Charles worries, there were also the oh-jeez-I-made-out-with-a-dude worries. Also known as the what-did-it-mean-to- _Jake_ worries.

Because, as much as Jake knew he wouldn’t have made out with Charles if he had been sober, his drunkenly uninhibited self had been sick of hanging out with Amy’s new boyfriend and had decided to make himself feel better by getting it on with a _guy_. And that had to mean something, right? Jake had kissed a guy, had pinned him up against a wall, and he had _liked_ it.

Jake finished his coffee, and decided to go find some clean clothes, and then do whatever he could to distract himself from his impending identity crisis. This whole situation was _so_ not noice.

When he finally braved the dorm room, he was relieved to find it empty. He grabbed some clean clothes and took them to the communal bathrooms, where he showered, dressed, and brushed his teeth. He didn’t want to go back to his room for longer than he had to in case Charles came back, so he went to the library and tried to work on an assignment for one of his classes.

It was impossible to focus, though. Jake had trouble focussing on essays at the best of times, but now his brain was full of confusing distractions. But when he noticed Amy and Teddy coming in his direction, Jake stared intently at his laptop and hoped they would ignore him.

They didn’t.

‘Hey, Jake.’ Why had Amy stopped calling him ‘Peralta’?

‘Hey,’ he said, half-heartedly.

‘You don’t mind if we sit here, do you?’ said Teddy, already sliding into the chair opposite Jake.

Amy shot Jake a look that might have been apologetic, or might have just been awkward, as she took the seat beside Teddy and set her binder down on the desk.

‘We didn’t see you when we were leaving the party last night,’ said Teddy. Jake wished he would stop talking and leave Jake to angst in peace. ‘You have a good time?’

‘Uh, yeah,’ Jake said. ‘It was good, you know? Alcohol, and… stuff.’

It was a pretty half-hearted lie, but Teddy nodded and said, ‘Tell me about it, man. I was so hungover this morning.’ He let out a too-loud laugh.

‘Well, I have an essay to write,’ Jake said abruptly. It worked – Teddy stopped trying to make conversation, and got out his own laptop. Jake tried to focus on his scree, but he was too distracted to write his essay. He kept trying to read over what he had already written, but the his brain couldn’t latch on to the words. All he could focus on was Teddy and Amy in his peripheral vision, leaning in to look at Teddy’s laptop together. Ugh, they were so cute and couple-y.

After a while, Teddy got up to go to the bathroom, and Amy leant over the desk to talk to Jake. ‘I’m sorry about him – I said we should find somewhere else to sit. I don’t want to bother you if you’re trying to work.’

‘It’s fine,’ Jake said. ‘I’m probably gonna head home soon anyway.’

‘You don’t have to leave because of us,’ Amy insisted. ‘It’s Teddy who keeps trying to turn this into a date – I just came here to study.’

‘I just came here to study – title of your sex tape,’ Jake said, and then cringed at himself. He’d been trying to talk to Amy like he used to before Teddy got in the way, but once the words were out of his mouth they just sounded awkward. And, as weird sex jokes went, that had not been his best work.

Amy rolled her eyes and, for once, she looked genuinely annoyed at him. Jake shoved his laptop into his bag. He was gone before Teddy got back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, does Eleanor seem kinda familiar to anyone else? XP


	13. Girls/Girls/Boys

Gina hadn’t seen Rosa since the party. It had only been a few days, but they hadn’t even been eating lunch together, let alone hooking up. Gina was tired of the whole thing, tired of feeling like she had to compete with that curly-haired guy and however many others for Rosa’s affection.

She wished she didn’t miss Rosa quite as much as she did.

It was Thursday, and Gina was walking to Jake’s dorm so that they could get lunch together. Their friend group hadn’t been eating together as much as they used to, what with Gina avoiding Rosa and Amy off with Teddy all the time.

Gina grabbed a tray and joined the queue, wondering whether she should message Rosa. She wasn’t even sure why she was avoiding her, exactly, except that she felt that familiar twinge in her stomach every time she thought about Rosa and that guy. Maybe Gina just needed to bone someone else herself, and then they would be even and they could go back to how they had been before.

She got herself some pasta and went to sit at their usual table. It wasn’t long before Jake joined her.

‘Hey,’ he said. He was acting weird, pushing his food around his plate rather than eating it.

‘What’s going on?’ Gina said. ‘You’ve been weird all week.’

Jake looked up at her, biting his lip. ‘Can I… talk you about something?’

‘I guess,’ said Gina, but actually she was intrigued to hear what Jake had to say. He looked almost nervous.

‘Cool,’ he said. ‘Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool. Noice. Smort.’

Gina rolled her eyes. ‘I haven’t got all day.’

‘The thing is,’ he said in a rush, ‘at Terry’s party, I sort of made out with a dude?’

Gina had called it – she had called it years ago. _Dang_ , she was good. Maybe she should become some kind of detective – or better, a psychic.

Jake was still rambling. ‘And it just made me wonder, you know? If maybe I’m…? Like think maybe I’m not…? And since you’re, you know, bi, or whatever, I thought you could…?’

‘You think you might be into guys?’ she said, unable to help a self-satisfied smile creeping onto her face. Because she had been _right_ , and Gina was always right but that didn’t mean she wasn’t pleased about it.

‘Maybe?’ Jake was blushing.

‘Who was it?’ said Gina.

Jake bit his lip and ran a hand through his hair. ‘Just some guy.’

‘Just _which_ guy?’

‘He was, uh,’ Jake said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what his name was.’

He was almost definitely lying, but Gina decided to go with it. ‘And you were into him?’

Jake put his face in his hands. ‘It’s so weird talking to you about this stuff,’ he said, his voice slightly muffled.

Gina rolled her eyes again, even though Jake couldn’t see. She just couldn’t help it. ‘You talk to me about girls you’re into all the time.’

‘Not recently.’ Jake mumbled. ‘And anyway, this is different.’

‘Well, I talk to _you_ about people I’m into all the time.’ Which also wasn’t entirely true – Gina hadn’t told him about Rosa. But it got Jake to look up from his hands. ‘So were you into him?’

‘Sort of,’ said Jake. ‘I don’t know. Maybe? Because I was drunk?’

God, this was exhausting. Gina had been waiting four years for Jake to come out to her, and now she apparently had to come out to him on his own behalf.

‘Are you into other guys?’ she said.

‘I don’t know.’ This boy was hopeless.

‘What about that guy?’ Gina pointed to a random guy a few tables away. He had floppy dark hair, and kind of looked like the girls that Jake usually went for.

‘Ugh. I don’t know,’ Jake groaned. ‘Maybe? He has nice hair. And nice arms. Does that mean I’m into him?’

Gina didn’t say anything, just watched Jake make a face like he was trying to solve an impossibly hard math problem.

‘Like, I think he looks _nice_ ,’ Jake said, ‘But do I want to bang him? I’ve never thought about banging a guy. Would I even want to do that?’

‘If you didn’t want to have sex with guys,’ Gina said, ‘you wouldn’t be freaking out so much.’

‘Huh,’ said Jake. ‘I guess you’re right. So maybe I do want to?’ He said it like it was a question, and he looked at her like he wanted an answer.

‘Look,’ she said, ‘I know that I’m a beautiful fount of wisdom. But this sounds like something that you need to figure out for yourself.’

‘Cool. Yeah,’ he said. ‘Coolcoolcoolcoolcool. No doubt, no doubt.’

‘Okay?’

‘Yeah…’ he said. ‘Just. One more thing – how did you figure it out?’

‘I looked at a girl and thought ‘I’d tap that’.’

Jake laughed, the tension in his body visibly dissolving.

It hadn’t really been that simple for Gina, of course, but it hadn’t been identify-shattering the way it seemed to be for Jake. All it had been was Gina thinking that she’d quite like to kiss one of her friends, and then doing it and thinking that she’d quite like to do it some more. And for a while she had thought she might be a lesbian, since she liked this girl more than she’d ever liked a boy. But eventually Gina realised that she did, in fact, like guys as well, and then she had it sorted in her head had been happy to tell people that she was queer.

That was what Jake needed to do, she figured. Think things through and get it all straight in his mind. Or _un_ straight in his mind. He seemed to feel better for now, though. He was actually eating his pasta. Gina Linetti had saved the day again.

After lunch, Gina headed to her next class, walking through the November sun towards the psychology building. She was already half way through the first semester of college – not bad. When she got to the psych building, she saw Charles coming towards her. This wasn’t unusual – Charles took a psych class for science credits, and Gina saw him around occasionally. The unusual thing was that he was wearing jeans. Straight jeans, almost skinny, that hugged the curves of his legs and ass. Wait, why was Gina looking at his butt? Get it together, Linetti.

‘Hey,’ he said, when he saw her. ‘Have you seen Jake?’

‘I was just having lunch with him,’ she said. ‘Why?’

‘I just have to talk to him about something,’ said Charles. ‘You know how it is with roommates – you sleep beside them but you never get to talk to them.’

‘Uh, okay,’ said Gina.

‘By the way,’ said Charles. ‘Thanks for hanging out with me on Saturday. I think you’ve really helped me to get over Rosa. And you’re a great friend.’

‘I know.’ Gina tossed her hair over her shoulder.

‘Right, well, I have a lecture to get to. See you around.’ Charles winked at her, and it was stupid, but Gina found herself smiling.

She tried not to look at his butt as he walked away.


	14. Just Friends

Avoiding people was hard. Especially when the people you were avoiding were two of your best friends.

Jake was avoiding Amy because she was spending a lot of time with Teddy, and Jake couldn’t stand Teddy. He hated the way Teddy always tried to act all chummy with him, the way he and Amy were always touching and calling each other _babe_.

And Jake was avoiding Charles, because of what had happened in that closet at Terry’s party. A literal closet to match his figurative one. Ha!

Jake had been thinking a lot since his conversation with Gina, but his thoughts only ever seemed to lead him round in circles, and when he turned to the internet for advice he only got more confused. There were so many things that he was apparently supposed to be thinking about, like _romantic orientation_ and _fluidity_ and it all got jumbled in his brain.

He had come to the conclusion that he didn’t _not_ like guys. He found them nice to look at. He liked their hair and their hands and their necks and… the more he thought about it, the more he liked them. He found himself _noticing_ guys more.

He was still trying to figure out how this would affect his actual life. Did he have to Come Out to people? Should he start dressing differently? Should he watch gay porn?

This whole thing was so confusing.

Jake hadn’t been spending that much time with his friend group recently, what with avoiding Amy and Teddy and Charles. And something seemed to be going on with Rosa, or perhaps she had just found some cooler people to hang out with, because Jake hadn’t seen much of her recently either. He ate lunch with Gina a lot, and sometimes Terry, but he also found himself spending a lot more time with some guys he’d met in his criminology classes: Doug and Dave. Jake and Doug would joke around a lot, and Dave tolerated them for reasons that Jake was yet to figure out. But Dave was in a fraternity, and had started inviting Jake and Doug to their parties. It was pretty dope.

These parties were also showing Jake that college was full of queer people. Dave seemed to be in a super accepting fraternity; there were plenty of guys (and girls, but they were less relevant) who were happy to flaunt their sexuality. And Jake looked at each guy, wondering _am I into you_ and _are YOU into ME?_

‘I _love_ your jacket,’ one guy had said to him, and Jake had blushed and made an awkward joke. But he was starting to consider the possibility of making out with a non-Charles dude. Was it possible that thinking about all this stuff was making him more gay? That seemed backwards.

When Jake’s dad called him, for the first time in six months, he tried to imagine what it would be like to come out to his dad one day. And his mom – he should probably tell his mom first, since she hadn’t walked out on him as a child. And what about his nana, who had practically raised him? What would _she_ think about this?

‘I’m sorry I missed Thanksgiving,’ he dad said.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Jake. The last time he’d spent Thanksgiving with his dad he’d been fourteen, so it wasn’t like this year had been different. He had spent it with his mom and his nana, and had gone back to college in time for class on Friday morning. ‘Maybe I’ll see you for Hanukkah?’

‘Uh, not gonna lie, I’m pretty busy,’ his dad said. ‘But maybe I’ll come visit you at college sometime.’ Jake doubted it.

It had been two weeks since Terry’s party, and Jake hadn’t talked to Charles since. He had been spending as much time as he could in the dining hall or the library, Dave’s room or Gina’s room. He and Charles were only in the same room when one of them was asleep.

But Jake had got complacent. He went back to his room to drop off his books before heading to Dave’s. Charles was there, sitting at his desk.

‘Jake!’ said Charles, spinning his desk chair around. Jake wondered if he could just back out of the room. ‘I’ve been waiting for a chance to talk to you for ages!’

Oh, god. This was exactly what Jake had been trying to avoid. ‘Okay,’ he said, reluctantly. He set his backpack down on the floor.

‘We should talk about what happened at Terry’s,’ said Charles. Jake sat down on his bed and avoided looking at his roommate. ‘You said it was weird, and I’m sorry. I was drunk and lonely and… it just happened.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Jake, still not looking at him. ‘I, uh, I started it too.’

‘The thing is, I have a habit of…coming on too strong,’ said Charles. Oh jeez, where was he going with this?

‘Charles…’ Jake didn’t know what he was saying. ‘It was just… drunk, you know? It wasn’t…anything.’

‘Just listen,’ Charles said, and it was such a surprise to hear him be so assertive that Jake shut up.

‘I have a habit of coming on too strong, and I didn’t want to do that,’ Charles continued, ‘because I like being friends with you and I didn’t want to ruin that.’

Oh. That made sense, actually. While Jake had been freaking out, Charles had, apparently, been giving this surprisingly mature thought. He looked up at the earnest gaze Charles was giving him across the small room.

‘I don’t want to ruin it either,’ said Jake.

Charles smiled. ‘Can we go back to normal?’

Jake nodded. ‘Noice,’ he said. ‘Let’s do that.’

Charles looked so relieved, and Jake found that he was grinning too. He didn’t need to rush off to Dave’s anymore; he and Charles went to get slurpees instead.

‘I think I’m getting over Rosa,’ Charles said, as they walked.

‘Oh yeah?’

‘I tried talking to her again at the party, and she was _so_ not into it. But I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m not even that sad. I mean, if I can be friends with her someday, that would be nice, but I’m not gonna keep asking her out.’

They bought their slurpees and wandered up towards midtown. It was so good to be talking again, to be free from the anxiety that had filled Jake every time he thought about Charles over the past fortnight.

‘So what’s going on with you and Amy?’ said Charles.

‘Nothing’s going on with us.’

‘But you like her, don’t you?’ Charles pressed.

‘No,’ said Jake. ‘We’re just friends. And it doesn’t matter anyway, ‘cause she’s dating Teddy.’ Jake sipped his slurpee. There was something weirdly nice about an icy drink in the cold November weather.

‘I don’t want to make things weird again,’ said Charles, hesitantly, ‘but at Terry’s party… you seemed pretty upset about her and Teddy.’

‘That’s because Teddy’s a dick!’ said Jake, and that part wasn’t even a lie. ‘And I just… feel like Amy’s been acting weird since she started dating him.’

But Jake had been acting weird too, hadn’t he? Being awkward with them, trying too hard to make dirty jokes, not to mention trying to avoid Amy for the past two weeks.

Jake remembered when he had first met Amy, at Shaw’s on his second night at college. He remembered their stupid challenges, remembered her hand in his when they were dancing, remembered how it felt when she had drunkenly leaned against him.

After that they had fallen into a pattern of jokes and teasing, and it had been so good that Jake had never thought about what else he might want from their relationship. He hadn’t _needed_ to, until that possibility was taken away from him by Teddy and his pilsners and his stupid perfect teeth.And even as Jake insisted to Charles that he didn’t like Amy in that way, he was realising that it wasn’t true.

He was jealous of Teddy. Because he liked Amy – not just as a friend, but romantic stylez. And that gave him a whole new set of things to worry about. Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to everyone who's been leaving kudos and especially the people who've been commenting, it makes me stupidly happy XD  
> Izzy


	15. Friday Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this chapter contains a brief appearance by one of my OCs. I needed a gay dude for this scene, and none of the characters from the show seemed right for it, so I just kinda shoved him in there - this is gonna be his only appearance in this fic, though, so hopefully it's not distracting.  
> Hope you all enjoy this chapter!  
> Izzy

It was Friday night, and Charles was bored. Jake had gone to a frat party with his criminology friends, and he had invited Charles but Charles didn’t want to intrude. Even though Jake was _his_ best friend, and he didn’t want to get replaced by any of those criminology guys. Maybe he should have gone after all…

He had been planning to use the evening to study, but he could hear shouts and laughter from outside. It was a bit distracting, but the worst part was the constant reminder that Charles was spending his Friday evening alone. It seemed like he was the only person who was.

He thought about texting Rosa, but that just made him sad. Which was stupid, because Charles was _getting over her_. He was sure he was. He was _determined_ to.

After Charles had made out with Jake at the Halloween party, most of him had been worried about what it might have done to their friendship, but a small part of him had felt… excited. Like he had proven to himself that even though Rosa didn’t want him, other people could. If only he could keep a hold of that feeling.

He ended up texting Gina.

 **Charles** : What you up to?

He hoped it made him sound casual and cool. He wasn’t really expecting a reply, though, and certainly not right away. But she surprised him.

 **Gina** : Heading to Shaw’s, wanna come?

Charles hurriedly got ready to go out. As he walked to Shaw’s, he wished he’d worn something warmer than just a shirt and a jacket; now that it was late November it was getting pretty cold at night. Charles would be able to start wearing his large collecting of sweaters soon.

He had expected Gina to be at the bar with some of her other friends, but she was alone. She was sitting on a barstool sipping a cocktail, her wolf jacket and the loose waves of her hair lit up around the edges by a light behind her. She looked like she was glowing.

‘Hello.’ Charles took the seat beside her.

‘Hey! Mr bartender guy!’ Gina waved to the bartender without acknowledging Charles. ‘We need two shots of vodka, ASAP!’

Charles watch apprehensively as the bartender poured two shots. Last time he and Gina had drunk vodka together, the night had ended up being… complicated.

‘How come you and I always end up getting drunk together?’ Gina said, with a sigh. They clinked their shots together and downed them.

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles. ‘You’d rather be getting drunk with Rosa or Jake, wouldn’t you? I mean, so would I. So would everyone.’

‘True dat,’ said Gina. ‘And yet here we are.’

They talked a little, and drank a lot. Gina got bored of her cocktail and gave it to Charles in favour of a whiskey and coke. The cocktail tasted like gourmet fruit juice, and somehow Charles finished it without noticing, and then he and Gina were ordering yet more drinks.

‘I wish Rosa was here,’ Charles said, at some point.

‘I thought you were over her?’ said Gina.

‘I am,’ said Charles. ‘But I feel like… everyone has someone. Jake has Doug as his new BFF, and Amy has Teddy, and Terry has a girlfriend now…’

‘Terry has a girlfriend?’

‘I thought you knew everything.’

‘So did I.’ Gina signalled to the bartender, and got them another round of shots.

Charles felt the alcohol swirling around his body, making him woozy. ‘Maybe I’m not entirely over Rosa,’ he admitted.

‘You know what you need?’ said Gina.

‘What?’

‘You,’ said Gina, ‘need a rebound. That’s how you’ll get over her!’

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles.

‘I do,’ said Gina. ‘And I’m always right.’

The bartender passed them their shots, and they downed them in sync.

‘Maybe you need a makeover,’ Gina mused, tugging on Charles’ collar to straighten it. ‘You’re kinda cute under all of that beige. You’d look better with a bit of… Gina magic.’

Her fingertips brushed Charles’ skin as she undid his top button. She looked up at him. Gina’s eyes were blue-green, almost hypnotically so, and her hands were still at his collar, and Charles felt a sudden desire to kiss her.

So he did. He leant forwards and pressed his lips to hers, and Gina used her grip on his shirt to pull him closer. In a moment, they went from two friends drinking away their problems to a blur of tongue and lips and hands. And then Gina pulled away, and handed a bank note to the bartender, and then she took Charles by the hand and pulled him outside.

She kissed him again, and then she hailed a cab, and they were in the back seat but they could have been anywhere. All Charles could focus on was Gina, her impatient mouth, her roaming hands. And he was so drunk, so woozy, and he was sure that he had started out the night thinking about something else. But he fell into Gina’s bed, and all he could think about was her.

 

 

Not long after arriving at Dave’s frat house, he and Doug had both abandoned Jake in favour of hitting on girls. Jake had ended up in the kitchen, drinking a vodka and orange soda while he talked to a guy called Adrian.

‘…and then I was like ‘come at me, bro!’’ Adrian yelled. ‘But he was a pussy. He just punched me in the face and left. Only knocked one of my teeth out!’ He laughed, loud and grating.

‘Cool,’ said Jake, a little stunned. ‘Coolcoolcoolcool.’

The door behind Jake opened, and Adrian’s eyes lit up. ‘Hey, my girlfriend’s here!’

Jake automatically turned to look, and then did a double take. Because the girl standing in the doorway was Rosa.

She looked from his to Adrian, and then said, ‘Uh. Hi.’

‘Hey, babe,’ said Adrian.

‘Soooo, you guys are dating?’ said Jake.

‘Yep,’ said Rosa. ‘We don’t need to talk about it.’

Jake and Rosa had been friends for four years, and ‘we don’t need to talk about it’ was a pretty good summary of their relationship. Rosa never told Jake who she was dating, or anything else that she didn’t deem relevant to him. He didn’t even know where she lived back in Brooklyn.

Nevertheless, it was weird to find out that he had been talking to Rosa’s boyfriend without knowing. Since they’d been at college, Jake and Rosa had seen each other quite a lot, and the fact that she’d been dating someone without him realising made Jake feel kind of stupid. Although she had been distant recently – maybe it was because of this guy?

Jake got up to refill his drink and, when he turned back around, Rosa and Adrian were making out.

 ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’m gonna go find my friends.’

He wove through the other people in the kitchen and headed towards the living room. He couldn’t see Dave or Doug anywhere, so he looked around for a conversation to insert himself into.

‘Hey.’

Jake looked up to see a guy looking at him - a guy wearing eyeliner a band shirt and tight jeans. A _cute_ guy. Jake was still getting used to thinking of guys as cute.

‘I haven’t seen you around before, have I?’ said the guy. ‘I think I’d remember if I had.’

‘Uhh,’ said Jake. He was _definitely_ still getting used to guys flirting with him. ‘I’m friends with Dave.’

‘Cool,’ said the guy. ‘Well, it’s delightful to meet you. I’m Frank.’

‘Yeah, nice to – um, I’m Jake.’

‘Hey, Frank!’ someone yelled from across the room. ‘Get your butt over here and play beer pong with us! We need you on team gay!’

Frank looked at Jake. ‘Want to play beer pong?’

‘Sure,’ said Jake.

So he played beer pong with Frank and his friends, who had divided themselves into the gay team and the straight team.

‘Can I still be on team gay if I’m bi?’ said Jake, his whole body tensing even as he tried to say it casually. It still made him feel so vulnerable to say it out loud. _I’m bi. I’m bi. I’m bi._

‘Sure,’ said a girl with a pixie cut. All of them were so relaxed – Jake had called himself bi, and none of them had even reacted.

‘I guess I should be playing for both teams,’ said Jake, emboldened. ‘Can’t lose, right?’

‘Or, alternatively, you’ll always lose,’ said the girl.

So they played, and they drank, and Jake didn’t remember who won, because afterwards Frank took him upstairs and kissed him. And they made out in a stranger’s bedroom, and it was so different from kissing Charles, because Jake was less drunk this time and he knew exactly what he was doing. And it different from kissing a girl - Frank was all sharp edges and smooth planes – but it was so good that Jake kept wondering why he had never done this before.

At the end of the night, Frank winked at him and said, ‘See ya.’ And Jake wandered back to his dorm with his mouth tingling and his head light, and fell into bed grinning.

_I’m bi. I’m bi. I’m bi._


	16. Best Buds

Charles woke up feeling dehydrated and generally hung-over, but deliciously warm. He sleepily rolled onto his side, and opened his eyes.

He was in someone else’s bed. And there was auburn hair on the pillow. Auburn hair that was very much attached to someone, someone with the smooth skin of her neck and shoulder exposed. And then that someone turned over enough to see him, and screamed.

Charles screamed too, as Gina pulled away from him, dragging the whole duvet off of him to cover herself as she scrambled out of bed. Charles hastily grabbed his underwear from the floor and pulled it on.

‘What the fuck?’ said Gina, wrapping the duvet around her.

‘This so gross,’ said Charles. ‘I can’t believe I slept with _you_.’ He grabbed his shirt as well. How could he have had sex with Gina, have fallen asleep naked beside her? A girl who was fun enough as a friend, but who Charles certainly didn’t like in that way, let alone _love_.

‘Get out of here,’ said Gina. ‘I’m going to get dressed. And then I’m going to try to forget that this ever happened.’

Charles hastily pulled on his jeans and jacket, and stuffed his feet into his shoes. He’d forgotten his socks but he didn’t care, he just wanted to be out of Gina’s room. He walked back to his dorm, and immediately went to take a shower. He felt gross, partly because they had drunkenly passed out right after having sex, but mostly because of what that sex meant. Or rather, what it _hadn’t_ meant.

Charles had never had casual sex before; sex was usually the result of Going Full Boyle on someone. There had been three different girls, back in high school, who Charles had been convinced he was going to marry. With one of them he had just fooled around, and with two of them he had gone all the way. All three of them had ended up breaking his heart.

Gina was only the third person he had gone all the way with, and he hadn’t even _wanted_ _to_ until they were making out. Charles had never thought of Gina as someone he could be into until the moment before he had kissed her.

Making out with Jake had been one thing, that was just kissing (and, okay, a _small_ amount of groping), but _sex_ was another thing all together. And with _Gina_ of all people.

When he got back to his room, Jake was awake, sitting up in bed with his laptop.

‘Hey,’ said Jake.

‘Hey, Jakey,’ said Charles, trying to sound normal. Normally there was nothing that he couldn’t talk to Jake about, but right now the thought of telling him that he’d slept with Gina was too embarrassing. And anyway, Gina would hate it if he told anyone.

‘Just FYI, I’m going home next week,’ said Jake.

‘Oh yeah?’ Charles sat down on his own bed.

‘Yeah, it’s Hanukkah. Hey – your parents are divorced, right?’

‘Yep – it happened after the tagliatelle incident of ‘07.’

‘Uh, okay,’ said Jake. ‘How often do you see your dad?’

‘Oh, I live with my dad,’ said Charles. On the other side of the small room, Jake closed his laptop and put it on the floor. ‘He’s my best bud. Well, my best family bud. _You’re_ my best college bud, obviously.’

‘Well, how often do you see your mom?’

‘All the time! Every weekend when I’m at home, and every summer we have a camping trip to Joshua Tree where we-’

‘Do you think my dad’s a dick?’ said Jake. ‘I mean, because he never visits?’

‘When did you last see him?’

‘Spring break last year,’ said Jake.

Charles got up and went over to Jake’s bed. Jake shifted to make room for him, and they sat facing each other on the narrow bed.

‘That sounds like he doesn’t make an effort to see you. And I don’t think that makes him the best dad,’ said Charles, gently.

‘Yeah,’ said Jake. ‘And, I mean, he cheated on my mom a lot. And then he left us. But I always thought… I don’t know. That I’d see him more someday? That he’d be a proper dad eventually?’

‘Well… he still might.’ Charles wanted to make Jake feel better, but couldn’t tell what Jake was getting at here.

‘The thing is…’ said Jake. ‘I have to tell him something. I have to tell both my parents something.’

‘Okay,’ said Charles, waiting for Jake to explain with a slight feeling of trepidation.

Jake sighed. ‘I have to tell you, too. And the others. God, I have so many people to tell. How do people make time for this?’

‘You know you can tell me anything, right Jakey?’

Jake nodded. ‘Yep. Here goes. Charles… I’m bisexual.’

It was so much less than Charles was expecting that he almost laughed. ‘I mean,’ he said. ‘After you and I frenched in that closet, I kind of already knew.’

‘Ew, please don’t say ‘frenched’.’ Jake made a face, but he was laughing. ‘Also, can we just not talk about that? It was weird.’

‘Right,’ said Charles. ‘So you weren’t out then?’

‘You’re basically the first friend I’ve told other than Gina.’

‘Oh, Jake!’ Charles grinned and pulled his friend into a hug. ‘I’m so proud of you!’

‘Dude, let go, I can’t breathe,’ Jake laughed. When Charles let go of him, Jake’s eyes were watering slightly. ‘Thanks,’ said Jake, ‘You’re the best.’

‘No, _you’re_ the best,’ said Charles. ‘So, I was a bit of a closet key for you, huh?’ He raised his eyebrow at Jake.

‘No, gross,’ said Jake. And then, ‘Actually, yeah. Sort of. Does that make it even more weird?’

Charles shrugged. ‘I can’t help how sexy I am.’

Jake laughed. ‘So are you…?’

‘Sort of,’ said Charles. ‘I mean, I’ve mostly dated girls.’

‘So I’ve heard,’ said Jake. ‘In excruciating detail. Have you dated guys, though?’

‘Not really,’ said Charles. ‘I’ve had crushes on guys, but I never got the chance to Go Full Boyle on them.’

Jake nodded, thoughtfully. ‘Oh, also,’ he said. ‘You were right.’

‘About what?’

‘That I don’t like Teddy because I’m jealous of him. Because I like Amy.’

‘I knew it!’ exclaimed Charles.

‘Yeah, well,’ Jake said, flatly. ‘I don’t know what to do about it now.’

Charles pointed some Jake-style finger guns at him. ‘Take her for a slurpee.’

Jake laughed. Charles loved making Jake laugh, especially when it pulled him out of a bad mood. But then Jake’s face darkened again, and he said, ‘but what’s the point, when she’s dating Teddy?’

‘Do you really think she’s going to be dating him forever?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jake, ‘But I don’t want to just hang around hoping they’ll break up, and I definitely don’t want to try to break them up. That would be a dick move.’

Charles nodded. ‘But don’t you miss hanging out with her? You two were so cute together at the beginning of the semester.’

‘Yeah,’ said Jake, his face brightening as though he’d just realised something. ‘I _do_ miss hanging out with her!’

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to hang out with her!’ declared Jake. ‘I’m going to be friends with her!’

Jake was grinning like he’d just made a breakthrough, and Charles didn’t entirely understand but he grinned too.

‘I’d rather be friends with her than avoid her,’ said Jake, ‘So I’m going to do that!’

‘Are you going to tell her that you’re bi?’ said Charles.

‘Oh,’ said Jake. ‘Yeah. Guess I should. At some point. But it makes me so nervous, you know?’

‘Yeah,’ said Charles. ‘But you know I’ll help you, right?’

‘Thanks, man,’ said Jake. ‘I’m glad you’re my best bud.’

Internally, Charles squealed with delight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like not much happened in that chapter but hopefully it was cute? There is a LONG one coming next week though, so stay tuned!  
> Izzy


	17. Fairytale of New York

November turned over into December; the air was crisp and cold, and Christmas lights and decorations were springing up all over New York. Well, over the part of New York where college was, at least – somehow Amy had almost reached the end of the first semester without exploring the city properly.

‘When are you going home for winter break?’ she asked Teddy in their last art history class of the semester. She was hoping that they could go out at the weekend – maybe do some sightseeing or something Christmasy.

‘Friday evening,’ he said.

Amy tried to shake off her disappointment. ‘Cool.’

‘What about you?’

‘Not until the eighteenth,’ she said. ‘I compared all the bus ticket prices and got the cheapest one. Even though it’s at four AM.’

Teddy laughed. ‘That’s my girl,’ he said.

Amy couldn’t quite remember when exactly she had become ‘his girl’; she had gone on their first date to figure out how she felt about him, and somewhere along the way had ended up as his girlfriend. But she pushed those thoughts to the side, and made plans to spend Thursday evening with Teddy so that they could see each other before he went home.

After class, Teddy headed in one direction for a politics class, and Amy went the other way, planning to go back to her dorm for lunch. But she’d hardly gone two steps before she saw Jake standing outside the door of the history building.

‘Hey, Santiago,’ he said, like he was completely unsurprised to see her.

She was surprised to see _him_. Jake had barely spoken to her since Halloween. Maybe it was just that she’d been busy with Teddy, maybe their friendship had just been a beginning-of-college thing – Amy hadn’t been sure. But she had got used to spending less time with Jake. And now, here he was, standing outside of her class, wearing a scarf over his leather jacket and plaid shirt.

‘Were you waiting for me?’ she said.

‘Nope,’ said Jake. She suspected that he was lying. ‘Just in the area. But, since you’re here, would you like to come have lunch at my dining hall?’

‘Sure,’ she said. They walked together, and Amy tried to remember the last time she had eaten lunch with Jake. They got to Jake’s dorm and joined the queue in the dining hall.

‘So, how’s Teddy?’ said Jake.

Amy eyed him suspiciously. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I just…’ Jake scrubbed a hand through his already-messy hair. ‘I’m trying, okay? Because I don’t want to stop being friends just because you’ve got a boyfriend now.’

‘Oh,’ said Amy. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stop hanging out with you and the others, I’ve just been-’

‘Wait, that’s not what I meant,’ said Jake.

‘Oh,’ Amy said again.

‘It’s fine,’ said Jake. ‘Just… we can still hang out, right?’

‘Right,’ said Amy, still confused. But Jake didn’t look like he wanted to elaborate any more, and they were at the front of the line, so she dropped it.

They took their food over to a table, and Amy found that she couldn’t wait to catch up on everything she’d missed since she’d last hung out with Jake. She told him about how Rosa was a weird and distant roommate who was always coming in late or staying out all night, and Jake told her about meeting Rosa’s boyfriend at a party. Amy talked about how Teddy was obsessed with pilsners, and Jake laughed but wasn’t a jerk about it. And Jake told her about his criminology friends, and about spending Hanukkah with his mom and his grandmother, and about how he and Gina used to hang out at his grandmother’s apartment while their moms were working.

They talked through their meal, and they sat and talked long after they’d finished. Amy didn’t want to leave, but she was aware that the start time of her next class was getting closer and closer.

‘I have to go soon,’ she said.

‘Same,’ said Jake.

‘I’m glad we’re hanging out again, though,’ Amy admitted. ‘I was worried that college – like, the social side of college, was going to be terrible. I’m rubbish at this stuff, but it’s easy when it’s with you.’

The sincerity of what she had just said hung between them, and for a moment Amy wished she could take the words back.

‘‘I’m rubbish at this stuff but it’s easy when it’s with you’ – title of your sex tape,’ said Jake.

Amy laughed. ‘I walked right into that, didn’t I?’

As she walked to her next class, Amy felt lighter. She hadn’t realised quite how much she had missed hanging out with Jake, but now that they were friends again she felt the same hopeful happiness that had filled her back when she first met him.

She ate with him a few more times that week. Sometimes Gina joined them too, sometimes Terry or Charles, sometimes even Teddy. Amy got the impression that Jake still didn’t like Teddy – he was uncharacteristically polite to him. But uncharacteristically polite was better than rude, and she was too happy to care.

Teddy went home on Friday evening, and Amy was left wondering how she was going to spend the next few days now that class was over and she wasn’t going home until Tuesday morning.

 **Jake** : Hey did anyone ever show you around the city?

Amy remembered getting the subway back from Terry’s apartment the first week of college, when Jake had said that someone should show her around, and anything had seemed possible.

 **Amy** : Nope

 **Jake** : Well shall we do something? Ur not leaving until later this week right?

Amy covered her mouth to hide her grin, even though nobody was in her dorm room to see. Rosa had left to go back to Brooklyn the day before, but it didn’t make much difference since she was out so much anyway.

 **Amy** : I’m leaving at four AM on Tuesday so we could do something before then?

 **Jake** : FOUR AM??? Whyyyyy?

 **Amy** : It was the cheapest time!

 **Jake** : You’re too sensible for your own good, Santiago

 **Amy** : I just looked it up and the bus station is half an hour away, and obviously I want to be there half an hour early and have time here first to get ready, so I’ll have to get up at 2.30 at the latest…

 **Jake** : WOW

 **Jake** : BTW I’m outside your door

Amy hastily got up off her bed and tried to stop her hair from looking like a giant mess. It was Sunday morning and she hadn’t been out yet – she was just glad she was dressed and otherwise presentable.

She opened the door to see Jake cracking up behind it.

‘Bet you weren’t expecting _that_!’ he said.

‘How do you even know where I live?’

‘I asked Gina.’ Jake came in and sprawled across Rosa’s bed; Amy shut the door behind him and went back to her desk chair.

‘Gina’s never been here either,’ she pointed out.

‘Gina knows everything though,’ said Jake. ‘Anyway, what were we talking about?’

‘Going home for winter break,’ said Amy. ‘Oh, yeah – about that. I have a stupid idea.’

‘I love stupid ideas!’ said Jake.

‘I thought so,’ said Amy. ‘So, do you want to hang out on Monday and stay up until two AM with me?’

Jake sat up and fixed her with a mock-serious expression. ‘Amy Santiago, it would be an honour to stay up until two AM with you.’

After a while, Amy kicked Jake out of her room so that she could pack. She wanted everything sorted so that they could spend the next day together with nothing weighing on her mind.

The next day, she met Jake outside her dorm.

‘Hey, Peralta,’ she said, and he beamed at her.

They walked and they walked. The temperature had dropped further overnight, and everything was cold and crisp. They stood at the bottom of the Empire State Building and craned their necks to look up at it. They stopped to listen to a busker singing ‘Fairytale of New York’; Amy gave him a handful of change. They walked down Broadway, and Jake sang a made-up show tune just a little too loudly for in public. They took a selfie together in Times Square.

‘I feel like such a tourist,’ said Amy. ‘But in a good way.’

‘Duh,’ said Jake. ‘I’m taking you on an ultra-special guided tour.’ He put on a deep voice. ‘And if you look _this_ way, you will see some of our city’s _finest_ Christmas commercialism.’

They ducked into Starbucks to get away from the biting cold for a while, and Jake bought them both hot chocolate. When they came back out, it was snowing. Jake looked delighted as he tried to catch snowflakes on his tongue.

They went to a fancy shop full of crystals, and a clothes shop where they took turns trying on ridiculous hats. Amy took a photo of Jake wearing a tiny fascinator. They walked through Central Park, bought slices of pizza and ate them with gloved hands while the snow stuck to their eyelashes.

They went to the Flatiron building and the Chrysler building and a shop that sold vinyl records. They looked at books and vintage clothes and almost got kicked out of Target because Jake was wielding a frying pan like it was a weapon. A burly store employee was glaring at them, and Amy grabbed Jake by the arm and pulled him out into the street.

‘Please don’t get arrested,’ she told him.

‘I’m just practising!’ said Jake. ‘You never know when you’re going to need a makeshift weapon in a _Die Hard_ -type situation.’

The wandered some more, and then Jake steered them to what he assured Amy was the biggest stationery store in the city.

‘This is amazing,’ Amy said, reverently gazing around at the shelves of binders and notebooks.

‘God, you’re such a nerd,’ said Jake. ‘Ooh, check this out!’ He grabbed a pencil with a moustache-shaped eraser on the end, holding it over his upper lip and quirking an eyebrow at her.

‘I don’t know,’ said Amy, thoughtfully. ‘I’m not sure it suits you. You know who would look good with a moustache, though? Me.’ She took the pencil of him, holding it over her own face.

‘Oh, yeah,’ said Jake. ‘You’re right, that actually improves your face _a lot_.’

They walked back to Amy’s dorm and ate dinner in the dining hall, which was quiet since most people had already left for winter break. Afterwards, they went to Shaw’s and played darts and pool until it closed at midnight, and they returned to Amy’s room.

‘When are you going home?’ Amy asked. They were both sitting on her bed, tired and a little tipsy.

‘Tomorrow.’ Jake yawned. ‘I mean, today.’

‘How come you didn’t leave yet?’ said Amy. ‘It’s not like you have far to go.’

‘There were things I needed to do here,’ Jake said, vaguely. Amy didn’t push it.

At three o’clock, Amy found herself hugging Jake goodbye.

‘I had a really good time today,’ she said.

Jake went back to his own dorm to sleep, and Amy walked through the cold night to the bus station. It wasn’t until she was on the greyhound bus to Boston that she checked her phone and saw the messages she had missed from Teddy.

 **Teddy** : Just got home

 **Teddy** : Hope you’re having a good day

 **Teddy** : Missing you

There were more of them, too, sent at intervals throughout the day. And Amy sat back in her seat and tried to think of something to say to him in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't I say it was gonna be a long chapter? XD Honestly I'm not sure much happened in this one either, but some stuff's gonna go down soon, so get hyped!  
> In the meantime you can hit me up on tumblr if you want to request anything, or just talk :)  
> Izzy


	18. Winter Break

_Wed 19 th 04:27_

**Amy:** Hey, sorry, didn’t see these messages until now! Was getting some sleep in before the trip

 **Amy** : On the bus now

 **Teddy** : That’s fine babe! Going to sleep now, let’s talk later x

_04:41_

**Jake** : Pretty crazy day, huh?

 **Amy** : Go to sleep, Peralta

 

Amy spent the first week of winter break studiously not thinking about what was going on with Jake and Teddy. Which was a problem in itself, because _really_ , nothing was going on. Amy was dating Teddy, and she was friends with Jake – what was so complicated about that? But every time one of them crossed her mind, she felt a tightening in her chest and hastily steered her thoughts in a different direction.

She still answered messages from both of them, but she tried not to think while she did it.

 

_Fri 21 st 15:02_

**Charles** : So… are we ever going to talk about what happened a few weeks ago?

 **Gina** : Absolutely not. And now I have to go bleach my brain again, so thanks for that

 **Charles** : Okay

 **Charles** : Sorry!

 

Gina couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Rosa was in Brooklyn too. How had Jake gone to high school with Rosa for four years, without Gina ever meeting her? Well, she had assumed that all of Jake’s school friends were incredibly lame, but that wasn’t the point.

Right now, Gina and Rosa were probably further apart than they had been for every single night of college, but because it was winter break it seemed to mean something that they were so close. Gina could probably text Rosa right now, and Rosa would come over. (Gina’s mom wouldn’t mind - she always let Gina have boys and girls in her room now that Gina was eighteen.) She could feel Rosa’s body pressed against her, could tangle her hands in Rosa’s hair. God, she missed the way it felt.

What actually happened, though, was that Gina ended up sending memes to Jake.

 

_Tues 25 th 10:20_

**Jake** : Happy xmas

 **Amy** : Thanks!

 **Jake** : What you up to

 **Amy** : Just shovelled the front yard with my brothers.

 **Amy** : It turned into a snowball fight.

 **Jake** : Did you win?

 **Amy** : Obviously.

 **Jake** : But you know I would have beaten you if I was there, right?

 **Amy** : No you wouldn’t have.

 **Amy** : What are you up to, then?

 **Jake** : Watching the die hard sequels, obvs

 **Amy** : Got to go sorry, we’ve got so much family coming!

 

_MON 31 st 22:31_

**Jake** : Hey Santiaho

 **Jake** : Haha ho

 **Jake** : I just said that cuz I’m drubk but pretty good pun right

 **Amy** : Your texting isn’t even that bad

 **Jake** : Trust me I’m helllla drunk

 **Jake** : Author correction is my saviour

 **Amy** : Auto correct?

 **Jake** : Yessssss

 **Amy** : Well it sounds like you’re having a good New Year’s Eve

 **Jake** : Yess is good

 **Jake** : Partyinb with my friends from hifh sxhool

 **Jake** : Rosa is here!

 **Jake** : Haha Is so drunk its noteven that late

 **Amy** : Maybe you should drink some water?

 **Jake** : Mayve you should dribk som e water title of yoursex tape

_23:46_

**Jake** : AMY

 **Jake** : It’s nearly the new year

 **Jake** : And I gotta tell you something cuz if I domn’t I’ll regret it

 **Jake** : And maybe it’s cuz I’m drunk but it’s real

 **Jake** : Ok here it is

 **Jake** : I know you’re with Teddy and that’s fine but I just wanna say I wish something could happen with us romantic stylez

_23:59_

**Jake:** Sorry if that was weird I really don’t wanna make you uncomfortable or anything I just like you and think you’re a great person

 

When the clock struck midnight, Jake kissed a cute girl called Sophia. They had gone to high school together, but had never hung out. She was a law student now; she went to Harvard. They made out on the couch in Jake’s friend’s living room, and for a few hours he almost stopped thinking about Amy.

 

_Tuesday 1 st 01:08_

**Amy** : Just saw these messages now

 **Amy** : Jake…

 **Amy** : I don’t really know what so say

 **Amy** : I’m dating Teddy. I hope we can still be friends.

_Read at 01:09_

On New Year’s Day, Amy slept in until ten o’clock, and then lay staring at the ceiling as she wondered if she should make some New Year’s resolutions. The only thing in her life that really needed improving was this whole situation with Teddy and Jake, which she had been trying so hard not to think about.

But now, Jake was making her think about it. She grabbed her phone and looked at those messages again – he still hadn’t replied. Damnit, it was so much harder to not know how she felt about Jake now that she knew how he felt about her.

 **Teddy:** Morning babe

Amy looked at Teddy’s message, and she couldn’t think of a single thing she wanted to say to him. All she could think about was _I think you’re a great person_ and _romantic stylez._ And about Jake: his curly hair and his dimples and the way his whole face lit up when they were making fun of each other.

_I wish something could happen with us romantic stylez._

The way Amy felt when she was with Jake was so different from how she felt when she was with Teddy. Even when she and Teddy were making out, that couldn’t come close to how good she felt when she and Jake were doing nothing more than teasing each other.

Her phone buzzed with another message.

 **Jake:** Hey I am SO sorry about what I said last night! I know you’re dating Teddy and I really am happy for you, I don’t want to interfere with that at all

 **Jake** : Can we just forget I said anything and put it all behind us?

Amy knew it was ridiculous, but she almost felt disappointed. But Jake was right, of course. He had been drunk, and Amy had a boyfriend, and it was best to move on from what had been said.

 **Amy** : Sure, I mean – that all happened last year.


	19. It Will End In Sex

Gina had only been back at college for a few hours when Rosa ambushed her on her way out of the dining hall.

‘Hey,’ said Rosa.

‘Hey.’ Gina had been avoiding Rosa for so long, but now Rosa was standing close enough that Gina could smell her shampoo, and all logical thoughts were swiftly exiting her mind. She found herself gazing at Rosa’s lips, overcome by the muscle memory of how it felt to kiss them.

‘Haven’t seen you in a while,’ said Rosa. For her, it was strangely close to small talk. But paired with an intense and unwavering gaze, it didn’t feel small at all.

‘Missed me?’ said Gina. God, she wanted Rosa to have missed her. But they had never been anything other than friends who had casual sex. When had it started to feel like so much more than that?

‘I don’t think I need to answer that,’ said Rosa.

And Gina had been staying away from Rosa, but right now she couldn’t remember a single reason why. ‘Wanna come up to my dorm room?’ she said.

Rosa didn’t even say anything, just took Rosa by the hand and led her upstairs. And Gina wished that they could hold hands more often, because Rosa’s palm felt so good against her own.

When they got to Gina’s room she would have pulled Rosa’s clothes off right then, but her roommate was there.

‘Hey, Eleanor, can we get some privacy in here?’ said Gina.

‘I’m heading out anyway,’ said Eleanor, shoving her feet into sneakers. She gave Rosa a once-over. ‘Let me know if you fancy a change, huh?’ She winked at Rosa, and then she was gone.

Gina pressed her lips to Rosa’s and pushed her onto the bed. It was hurried and desperate; they were sloppy in their haste to touch each other again. By the time it was over and they lay side by side, breathless but deliciously so, Gina was still half-dressed.

‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away from me for long,’ she said, even though she knew full well that it had been _her_ staying away from Rosa.

‘I’d better go.’ Rosa got up and started putting on her clothes. How did she make _dressing_ seem so sexy?

‘You don’t have to leave,’ said Gina.

‘Your roommate’s gonna come back,’ said Rosa.

‘Fuck her,’ Gina said, which was probably a bad choice of words. She _really_ didn’t want Rosa to fuck Eleanor.

‘I have to go anyway,’ said Rosa. ‘I have an essay to write.’

‘Alright,’ said Gina.

Like that, she and Rosa fell back into the pattern they had established back in the fall. They went to each other’s rooms when their roommates were out, mostly to have sex but occasionally to watch a movie or get drunk. They weren’t girlfriends: they didn’t go on dates, they didn’t hold hands, most of the time they didn’t even kiss unless it was a stepping stone to sex. And none of this was ideal - Gina hated the idea of not being the most important thing in any given person’s life – but it was better than when they had been apart. They weren’t girlfriends, but at least they were something.

She didn’t mind Rosa sleeping with other people – what she minded was the idea that they meant more to her than Gina did. That she might be kissing them and holding their hands. So Gina tried to forget about the other people Rosa was seeing, and she managed it for a while at least.

But now it was Saturday night, and they hadn’t seen each other in days. Rosa kept blowing her off. And Gina was bored – she’d been hoping for a trip to Shaw’s now that their friendship group was mostly intact again, but there had been no plans made for tonight.

 **Gina** : u up?

 **Rosa** : Busy soz

She was with someone else. That guy probably – the one with the beard and the crazy hair. Adrian. Goddamnit, why would anyone want him when they could be banging _Gina_?

Gina was up before she had a chance to question the decision she was making. She threw on her shoes and a jacket, and then she was speeding down the stairs and out into the night. She didn’t think about what she was doing, she just walked.

As soon as Charles opened his door, Gina said, ‘Where’s Jake?’

Charles looked slightly startled. ‘At a party,’ he said.

Gina kissed him, and now Charles was definitely startled, but after a moment he relaxed into the kiss. When Gina pulled away again, Charles said, ‘Wow. Okay. Are we going to…?’

Gina pushed the door shut at the same time as she kicked off her shoes, and then she kissed Charles again before he could say anything else stupid. His hands found the lapels of her coat, and she shrugged out of it. And then Charles pushed her up against the wall and, _dang_ , he might be short and weird, but he had game.

She tugged at the scratchy wool of his sweater – it was ugly, nobody should wear something like that. He pulled away from her, raised his arms so that she could take it off. She pushed him onto the bed, and they scrambled to pull each other’s clothes off. Gina climbed on top of him, grinding her hips against his, kissed him intently as his hands wandered her body.

CHarles rolled them over, kissed her collarbone, her chest, her stomach, her hips, her thighs. She ran her hands through his hair as he tugged her underwear down.

‘Do you have condoms?’ she said.

‘Yep- my mom gave them to me when I left for college.’

Gina pulled him into another kiss just to shut him up.

When he wasn’t talking, Charles was surprisingly good in bed. He was attentive, eager to please, and a damn good kisser. For a while, he almost made her forget about Rosa.

Afterwards, Gina snuck upstairs to take a shower in the bathroom of the girls’ corridor. When she came back, Charles was making his bed.

‘That was… not awful,’ she said.

He raised his eyebrows at her. ‘Seemed a bit better than ‘not awful’ judging by the noises you were making.’

‘Ew,’ she said. ‘It’s bad enough that I’m sleeping with you – you don’t have to make it worse by saying things like that.’

‘Sleeping with me, present tense?’

‘We’ll see,’ said Gina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a million WIPs at the moment, but weirdly I want to write more Charles/Gina stuff now? They're quite fun XD  
> Izzy


	20. Everything Is Fine

After what had happened via text over winter break, Amy was nervous about seeing Jake again. They had agreed to be normal with each other, but what _was_ normal now that Amy knew that Jake liked her, and that a part of her liked him back?

She was tempted to try avoiding him, but she remembered how much she had hated not hanging out with him at the end of the first semester. She didn’t want it to be like that again. She didn’t have the option, anyway – she and Jake turned out to be taking the same literature class this semester, as well as history.

‘Hey.’ Jake took the seat beside her, dropping his battered notebook and a bottle of orange soda on the desk.

‘Is that all you brought to class?’ said Amy. ‘Where’s your bag?’

‘Jeez,’ said Jake, grinning. Amy looked away. ‘I brought a notebook! To take _notes_ in. What more do you want from me?’

Amy opened her backpack and took out the binder she kept her notes in (for liberal arts subjects – sciences had their own binder, obviously), a copy of the book they were studying, and her pencil case.

‘Uh, also,’ said Jake. ‘Can I borrow a pen?’

Amy rolled her eyes at him. ‘You remembered orange soda, but not a pen?’ But she gave him one anyway.

‘Thanks,’ he said. And then, quieter, ‘We’re cool, right? I mean, after… you know.’

When Amy met Jake’s sincere gaze, she suddenly really, really wanted to kiss him. Which was ridiculous, because they were in class, and because she had a boyfriend, and because they were in the middle of a conversation about how nothing _romantic stylez_ was going to happen between them. But his face was so close, and his gaze was so intense.

Amy forced herself to look away. ‘Yeah, we’re cool,’ she said. ‘Super cool.’

Amy’s phone buzzed, and she was glad to have something to distract her.

 **Gina:** Shaw’s tonight, everyone’s coming

She showed her phone to Jake.

‘I guess I’ll see you there?’ she said.

‘Yeah,’ he said. And then, ‘Actually, can we walk over together? There’s something I want to talk about.’

‘Okay,’ Amy said, nervously.

‘It’s nothing weird!’ Jake said quickly.

Amy laughed. ‘With you, everything’s weird.’

‘Wow, stop flirting with me!’ said Jake. ‘We literally _just_ agreed to be cool about that.’

And Amy thumped him on the arm, and then, thankfully, the professor arrived for the start of class.

 

That evening, Amy ate dinner with Rosa in silence, which was Rosa’s preferred way of eating. They had been roommates for almost six months now, and they had barely talked outside of a group.

‘Hey, Rosa – what’s your major?’ she said, because she couldn’t believe she didn’t know.

Rosa looked up at her with a stony expression. ‘Why do you care?’

‘I just realised that I don’t know anything about you.’

Rosa nodded. ‘Good.’

‘Well,’ said Amy, ‘My major is art history.’

‘Everyone knows that,’ said Rosa.

After dinner, Amy told Rosa that she had to go back to their room for something, but it was just an excuse so that she could hang back and wait for Jake.

‘Hey Santiago,’ he said, when he met her outside the dorm.

‘Hey,’ she said, a little nervously. She was trying not to think about how cute he looked, or to look at him too much at all. ‘So what did you want to talk to me about?’

They set off in the direction of Shaw’s.

‘So,’ said Jake. ‘This isn’t really a big deal. I’m probably making it a bigger deal than it needs to be, actually. But I just wanted to talk to you about it first, you know.’

‘Okay,’ said Amy.

‘Well,’ Jake was rambling a bit. ‘I already told Gina, sort of, and Charles, but I wanted to tell you next because I like you – not _like_ you, I mean, we’re friends-’

‘Just tell me,’ said Amy.

Jake took an audible breath. ‘When you and me weren’t hanging out as much, I figured out that I was bisexual.’

‘Okay,’ said Amy, looking up at Jake. She wasn’t sure how she was meant to react – all she was feeling was mild surprise and, now that she was looking at him, the urge to kiss him. His vulnerability was cute. And then she realised that all she had said was ‘okay’ and that she should probably say something more validating. ‘That’s great,’ she said, and then realised that that was probably a weird thing to say. She tried again. ‘Thanks for telling me.’

Jake nodded. ‘I know it’s not a big deal. Loads of people are bi. But… it’s a big deal to me.’

Amy felt a smile creeping across her face; she liked that Jake had wanted to tell her separately from the rest of the group. She liked feeling special to him.

They got to the bar and bought drinks before joining Rosa, Gina, Charles and Terry at a table. It reminded Amy of the first night of college, except today everyone seemed a lot more relaxed. They chatted and they drank, and it wasn’t until Amy got up to go to the bathroom that she realised how woozy she was. She grabbed the back of Jake’s chair to steady herself, giggling.

‘Are you drunk already?’ Jake laughed.

‘No!’ said Amy. ‘A little. I always end up drinking too quickly because I need something to do with my hands and my mouth.’

Jake smirked. ‘I need something to do with my hands and -’

‘I know, I know, title of my sex tape.’ Amy tried to roll her eyes at him, but she was laughing too much.

When she came back from the bathroom, the others were talking about their First Times.

‘…and I said, if you cant appreciate me for the sensuous woman I am, then you can get the hell out of here,’ Gina was saying. ‘And then I banged his cousin.’

‘Tight,’ said Rosa, the corner of her mouth twitching.

‘What about you, Jake?’ said Charles. Amy slid back into her seat, realising that she wasn’t the only one who was a bit drunk.

‘Uhhh,’ said Jake. Everyone looked at him expectantly. He took a swig of his drink, and then said, ‘Well, uh, I haven’t exactly, you know-

‘Wait,’ said Rosa. ‘Are you a virgin?’

‘Only technically!’ Jake was blushing.

‘This is brilliant.’ Rosa laughed - actually _laughed_. ‘Mr ‘title of your sex tape’ is a virgin.’

‘I mean, I’ve done other stuff,’ Jake protested, ‘It’s not like I’ve never-’

‘I can’t believe Jake’s a virgin and _Charles_ isn’t,’ said Gina. She and Rosa were both dissolving into giggles. Jake continued to protest, his face red.

Amy thought she might be blushing too – her face felt hot. She wished everyone would stop talking about Jake’s sex life.

‘Hang on,’ said Jake. ‘How did you know that Charles wasn’t a virgin? I didn’t even know that, and Charles tells me all sorts of weird stuff.’

Gina shrugged. ‘I know everything.’

‘Sex stuff isn’t weird,’ said Charles. ‘You shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you do in bed. Or _don’t_ do.’

Charles started laughing too; even Terry was stifling a chuckle.

‘Guys!’ Amy reprimanded them. ‘You can’t make fun of him just he hasn’t met your narrow definition of sex!’

‘Not helping, Amy,’ Jake mumbled, covering his face with his hands.

‘We’re only doing it because it’s Jake,’ said Rosa.

‘I’m not,’ said Gina. ‘I’m doing it ‘cause it’s funny.’

‘Being a virgin is _not_ a big deal,’ Amy insisted.

‘Let me guess,’ said Gina. ‘You’re a virgin too?’

Amy felt herself blush even more. ‘I’m not, actually.’

Being reminded of her extremely lacklustre sexual history was somehow more embarrassing than it would have been to admit that she was a virgin. Amy’s first time had been with her high school boyfriend, and it had been underwhelming to say the least. She’d thought it would get better, but it never had, and she had broken up with him towards the end of their senior year.

She and Teddy had yet to do more than make out, which Amy was remarkably unbothered by. She couldn’t really imagine having sex with Teddy. Recently, she hadn’t even been spending much time with him.

On the way out of the bar that night, Jake and Amy bumped into each other as they tried to walk through the door at the same time.

‘Sorry.’ Jake stood back. ‘After you.’

Amy looked away to hide the fact that she was blushing again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I don't have time to update WTNY tonight  
> Also me: *updates my oneshot collection*  
> So, yeah, this was a day late, but here it is! Hope you enjoyed!  
> Izzy


	21. Hello, Brooklyn

Charles suspected that getting into a relationship with Gina had been a mistake. Well, it wasn’t a relationship – Gina was very clear about that point. As far as Gina was concerned, they weren’t even friends. They were just friends-of-friends who often hung out as part of a group, and even more often met for secret, slightly shameful, lovemaking.

‘You’d better not tell anyone about this,’ she said, as they lay in bed after the third or fourth time they slept together. It was the first time they’d stayed in bed for a while before one of them raced off.

‘I won’t,’ said Charles. Gina rolled over, trying to get comfortable in the narrow bed, and ended up with her head on his shoulder. Hesitantly, Charles wrapped an arm around her.

‘Not even Jake,’ she said. ‘ _Especially_ not Jake.’

‘Okay,’ said Charles, and then he kissed her again, and for a while he forgot about the conversation. But the longer it went on for, the harder it was to keep his promise. Charles _loved_ talking to Jake.

‘Jeez, why is it so cold in here?’ Jake said one night, as he stumbled into their room after a party. Charles pretended to be asleep so he wouldn’t have to think of an excuse to cover the fact that he’d opened the windows to get the smell of Gina out of their room.

And it was weird sitting with her and the others in the dining hall or at Shaw’s bar, trying to act like nothing was going on between them. He worried that he was looking at her too much, and then that he was looking at her too little.

The strangest part of this whole thing, though, was that Charles was _enjoying_ it. Gina could be mean, and she said some strange things sometimes, but she was also beautiful. And _sensuous_ – a word Gina used a lot that turned out to be an apt description of her.

 Charles had never thought he’d sleep with someone who he didn’t love, let alone sleep with them this often, but now that it was happening he was beginning to understand why people made such a fuss about casual relationships.

‘Hey, bitches,’ Gina said, as she sat down at their lunch table one day. Charles looked at her, and then looked away. ‘I have news.’

‘Are you in another dance competition?’ said Jake.

‘Probably,’ said Gina. ‘But my news is: my mom is taking a vacation with her new boyfriend.’

Everyone looked at her blankly.

Gina sighed. ‘Which _means_ … my apartment in Brooklyn is going to be empty this weekend.’

‘So?’ said Rosa.

‘So! Let’s all go hang out and drink my mom’s liquor!’

‘I’m down,’ said Rosa.

Charles would have agreed, but he bit his tongue and waited for someone else to speak.

‘Same,’ said Jake. Amy shrugged and agreed as well.

‘Sounds great,’ said Charles.

‘I guess Terry’s coming too!’ said Terry.

So it was settled – they were all going to Brooklyn.

 

Being friends with Amy was harder than Jake had thought it would be. Even now that she seemed to be spending less time with Teddy, his presence loomed over their interactions. And sometimes, when Amy would say something particularly nerdy, or roll her eyes at him, or tuck her hair back behind her ears, Jake would have to look away and force himself not to think about kissing her. He wished he could put that aside and just be regular friends, but he still felt that ache when he looked at her sometimes.

But he was willing to put up with all of that if it meant he could hang out with her. And he wasn’t just hanging out with her so that he could hook up with her the moment she and Teddy broke up, although he sometimes worried that was what Amy thought he was doing. The truth was that as much as he wished they could be together romantic stylez, he also liked being friends with her.

Jake was thinking about this so hard that he hadn’t realised that he was staring at the guy sitting across the table from him in the library.

‘Do you… need something?’ the guys raised his eyebrows at him, and Jake forced his brain to focus on the moment at hand. It was only then that he realised that he knew this guy – it was Terry’s roommate, Raymond.

‘Uh, no,’ said Jake. ‘I was just… being normal.’

‘Okay,’ said Raymond.

‘So…’ said Jake, floundering for something to say. ‘What are you up to this weekend?’

‘Nothing,’ said Raymond.

‘Oh.’

‘Kevin is going to be away from college, and I will simply be… studying alone.’

‘Oh,’ said Jake again. Raymond’s expression was as unreadable as always, but what if he was upset? The words that he was saying seemed sad, even if his face didn’t. Before Jake had thought it through, he was saying, ‘Well, me and my friends are going to Gina’s apartment in Brooklyn – you could come if you want. Amy’s coming.’

Raymond just looked at him.

‘Uhh,’ said Jake. ‘It was just an offer.’

‘Thank you for your… offer,’ said Raymond.

‘You’re welcome?’ said Jake. And then he decided it was best to end the conversation there, so he opened his criminology textbook and tried to focus on studying. But he couldn’t drag his mind away from thoughts of Amy, and the weekend, and how different things might be if Teddy wasn’t in the picture.

There was no point in thinking about it, though. Amy was with someone, and nothing was going to happen. Title of her sex tape, Jake thought, and almost laughed out loud.


	22. Never Have I Ever

**Teddy** : Wanna hang out tomorrow?

 **Amy** : Can’t, sorry! I’m going to Brooklyn, remember?

 **Teddy** : Ugh

 **Teddy** : I feel like I never see you anymore

 **Amy** : We saw each other yesterday

 **Teddy** : True but I feel like we don’t connect the way we used to

Amy looked at the message, trying to think of something to say in reply. She didn’t know what Teddy was talking about – she couldn’t remember ever really _connecting_ with him. He had just been the guy she talked to in art history classes, and she had fallen into a relationship almost by accident.

 **Amy** : I’m sorry

It was Friday afternoon and she’d just had her last class, and she was on her way to her room to get her things for the weekend. Rosa was there, chucking clothes into a duffel bag from across the room.

‘Give me one sec,’ said Rosa. ‘I’m nearly ready.’

Amy could hear bottles clinking in Rosa’s bag when she picked it up. They walked to the subway station together, where they met Jake, Charles, Gina, Terry, and Raymond. What was _Raymond_ doing here? Amy felt immediately self-conscious.

‘Hi,’ she said to the group, hoping someone would explain.

Rosa was more direct. ‘Do we know you?’ she said, looking at Raymond.

‘Yes,’ said Raymond. ‘I live with Terry.’

‘Yeah,’ said Terry, ‘and Jake was… _nice enough_ to invite Raymond to come with us.’

Jake laughed awkwardly. ‘Yep. That is what I did. Okay, let’s go!’

He turned and started down the steps into the subway station. Everyone else followed, and Amy hurried to catch up with Jake.

‘What’s going on?’ she hissed. ‘Why did you invite Raymond?’

‘I don’t know!’ said Jake. ‘He told me that his boyfriend was away this weekend and I just panicked! I didn’t think he was actually gonna _come_.’

‘This is so weird,’ said Amy. ‘I thought we were just gonna hang out and drink all weekend.’

‘We can still do that.’

Amy glanced over her shoulder to make sure that the rest of the group was still out of earshot. ‘But it’s awkward now,’ she said, ‘Raymond’s not a hang-out-and-get-drunk kind of guy.’

‘Sorry,’ said Jake. ‘He was talking about how he was gonna be alone because his boyfriend’s away and I just felt like if that was me, I’d be lonely.’

Oh. That was actually really nice of him.

‘Okay,’ she said, as they got to the platform. ‘We can roll with it.’

Jake smiled gratefully. ‘No offence, Santiago, but you don’t seem like much of a ‘roll with it’ kind of person.’

‘Shut up,’ she said. ‘I can totally roll with it.’

The others caught up with them and, and Amy sat beside Jake on the next train as it rattled from Manhattan to Brooklyn. When they got to Gina’s stop, she led them to her apartment block. Amy looked around her, taking everything in and wondering how far away Jake lived.

‘Right,’ said Gina, when they got to the door of her apartment. ‘We’re here to get super lit, but the only thing that’s gonna get fucked up is _us_. Don’t break anything.’

She waited for everyone to nod, and then unlocked the door.

‘I haven’t been here in _ages_ ,’ said Jake, flinging himself onto the couch.

Unsure what to do, Amy put down her bag and checked her phone.

 **Teddy** : I think we need to talk when you get back

Amy didn’t want to do this anymore. She didn’t want to have a _talk_ with Teddy like they were a serious couple with serious relationship issues to sort out. They had only been together a few months, and Amy’s feelings for him had never gone further than a mild appreciation of Teddy’s company.

She didn’t want to hurt him, but she also couldn’t imagine this relationship going on for any longer than it already had.

 **Amy** : Good idea

She looked up at her friends. Raymond and Terry were engaged in a conversation about politics while Jake looked slightly lost, but was trying to join in anyway. They did not look like they appreciated his contributions. Meanwhile, Gina, Rosa, and Charles were in the kitchen talking about ordering pizza. Gina was wearing a hoodie that said ‘Gina knows best’ on it.

Amy put her phone away; tonight, she didn’t want to think about Teddy, she just wanted to have a good time. She joined the others in the kitchen, where they were arguing over pizzas.

‘I’m just saying, if you’re not going to take mouth-feel into account, is there even a _point_?’ Charles was saying. Amy took charge of the situation, getting everyone’s topping preferences and ordering the pizzas quickly and efficiently.

Rosa pulled two bottles of vodka out of her bag.

‘Where did you _get_ those?’ said Amy. Rosa didn’t answer.

‘That’s what I’m talking about, bitch!’ said Gina. ‘Let’s play some drinking games.’

‘It’s five thirty,’ Amy pointed out.

Gina raised her eyebrows at her. ‘Is that an admission of defeat?’

‘No!’ said Amy, quickly. ‘Let’s do this! Hey, Jake – get over here!’

Jake jumped up from where he was sitting, looking delighted to have something to do that wasn’t talking to Terry and Raymond.

‘Drinking games?’ he said. ‘You are going _down_ , Santiago!’

‘No way,’ she said. ‘I called you over here so I can watch you lose.’

But Amy was careful to make sure she poured her own drink rather than letting someone else do it; her track record with drinking wasn’t exactly stellar. And she still felt weird about Raymond being there.

Something on the sideboard caught her eye: a framed photo of Jake and Gina, probably taken a few years ago. Gina was wearing a green prom dress, and Jake was wearing a tux. And he had frosted tips.

‘You and Gina went to prom together?’ she said.

‘Yeah,’ said Jake, ‘Her boyfriend broke up with her the week before prom, so I went with her.’

‘That’s so cute.’

‘Well, yeah,’ said Jake. ‘I’m always cute.’

Amy wished she didn’t agree with him as much as she did.

And then their pizzas arrived, and the seven of them settled in a circle on the living room floor around the open boxes. Gina decided that they should play ‘never have I ever’ and, even though she rolled her eyes when Amy admitted that she didn’t know how to play it, she explained the rules for everyone.

‘I believe I understand this game,’ said Raymond. ‘I have never engaged sexually with… a woman.’

Everyone except Amy took a sip of their drink. She tried to remember whether that was something she already knew about Gina and Rosa. She didn’t think it was something they’d ever talked about, but it certainly didn’t surprise her.

Gina looked at Jake. ‘Bitch, no you haven’t.’

‘Just because I’m a virgin doesn’t mean I’ve never…’ Jake put on a surprisingly good imitation of Raymond, ‘engaged sexually with a woman.’

‘He’s right,’ said Amy. ‘If it counts for you, it counts for him.’

‘Ugh, whatever,’ said Gina. ‘Rosa, your turn!’

‘Never have I ever stolen a car,’ said Rosa.

‘What the hell?’ said Terry. ‘Why would anyone have done that?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rosa. ‘Maybe you should. It would make you guys more interesting.’

‘Am I gonna be the only person with a normal one?’ said Terry. ‘Never have I ever been to Canada.’

‘See? Not interesting.’ Rosa took a swig of her drink.

‘Definitely not interesting,’ said Gina. ‘Never have I ever… been really bad at drinking games. All of you drink!’

Amy took another sip of her drink. It wasn’t strong, but it was probably still too much for so early in the evening.

Jake was the next in the circle. ‘Never have I ever known how to do laundry.’

‘ _What_?’ said Amy.

‘Idiot,’ said Rosa.

‘Is that why you always want to do ours together?’ said Charles. ‘I thought you just wanted to hang out.’

‘I mean,’ said Jake. ‘I do want to hang out. But…’

‘You also want to pathetically force Charles to do your laundry for you?’ said Gina.

‘As soon as we get back to college,’ said Amy. ‘I’m teaching you how to do laundry.’

‘How can you not know?’ said Rosa.

‘I don’t know!’ said Jake. ‘My mom always used to do it… and laundry machines are confusing! Like, what are all those buttons for?’

Sometimes, Amy couldn’t believe she was attracted to this boy. But she really, really was.


	23. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I kept saying 'nothing happens in this chapter'? Well... things happen in this chapter ;)

At some point, the game of ‘never have I ever’ fell apart, and turned into a series of card games. The pizza was gone, and everyone was somewhat tipsy, and Jake couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that everyone was in the same place.

‘Hey, guys?’ he said, before he realised he was doing it. They all looked at him.

Why was this still so hard? In the past couple of months, Jake had done this over and over again, and it still made him feel sick with nerves.

‘Uh,’ he said. ‘So, everyone’s looking at me. Coolcoolcoolcool. This wasn’t meant to be a big announcement, I just wanted to say that I’m, uh, bisexual. And I wanted everyone to know that.’

He caught Amy’s eye, and she smiled at him.

‘Oh Jake, I’m so proud of you!’ said Charles.

‘You already _knew_ ,’ said Jake. He was still shaking slightly, which was stupid because obviously everything was going to be fine.

‘I’m proud of you anyway.’ Charles pulled him into a hug.

Jake hugged him back, and then pulled away to glance around the group and check their reactions. Nobody looked particularly shocked. In fact, it hadn’t created much of a stir at all.

‘I called it _ages_ ago,’ said Gina. ‘Let’s play ‘ring of fire’.’

Later, Rosa cornered Jake in the kitchen as he refilled his drink.

‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Good job with what you did.’

‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Thanks.’

There was a pause, before Rosa said, ‘I’m bi as well.’

‘Noice,’ said Jake.

The corner of Rosa’s mouth twitched. ‘Seriously. Good job.’

And then there were more games and more drinking, and after a while the group began to separate. Terry and Raymond were talking in the kitchen, and at some point Amy went to join them. The others decided to watch a movie, and Gina produced popcorn and more drinks from the cupboards.

After a while, Jake realised that it was only him and Rosa watching the movie – the others had wandered off somewhere. Jake got up to go to the bathroom, and when he came out Amy was standing in the dimly lit hallway, looking at her phone.

‘Hey,’ he said.

She looked up at him and smiled, turning her phone off.

‘You okay?’ he said.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘It’s nothing.’ She shoved her phone into her pocket. ‘I think it was brave of you to come out to everyone like that. I mean, obviously those guys were going to be chill – I think half of them are, you know, not straight themselves – but it was still brave.’

‘Thanks,’ said Jake. ‘It was scary, but… I feel better once people know. It’s like – okay, this might sound dumb, but it’s like they’re finally seeing my real self. Okay, that was cheesy. But you know what I mean, right?’

‘I understand,’ said Amy. She smiled at him, pushing her hair back behind her ears with both hands. Jake knew he should look away, because the way Amy was smiling at him right now was doing things to his heart, but he couldn’t bring himself to.

‘I think I’m gonna come out to my parents as well,’ he said.

‘Yeah?’

‘I might tell my mom over spring break. It’s different from you guys though – I don’t know how she’s going to react. Like, she’s not homophobic or anything – and she’s always been fine with Gina and her girlfriends. But she gets kinda weird when there’s queer people on TV.’

‘What about your dad?’ said Amy.

‘I don’t know,’ said Jake. ‘I don’t even know when I’m going to see him.’

Somehow, they’d drifted closer together. Almost dangerously close.

‘You know you’ve always got us, right?’ said Amy. Her voice was low. They were close enough that they didn’t need to be loud.

‘I know,’ said Jake.

Amy didn’t say anything, but she took another step forwards. And Jake found himself leaning towards her, drawn in as if by a magnet. They were so, so close now. Jake could hear every unsteady breath that Amy took, could all but feel her heartbeat. _She has a boyfriend,_ he reminded himself. _We’re just friends._

He had never wanted to kiss her as badly as he did in this moment. Her gaze was locked on him, her lips slightly parted. And she was so close. He wanted to take away that last bit of distance, to touch her, to feel her skin against his. But he couldn’t, he shouldn’t. _We’re just friends._

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Ames.’

He was sure she could feel it as well, the way the air felt like it was crackling with static electricity. Jake couldn’t tear his gaze away from her eyes. In that moment, nothing existed outside of the two of them.

Amy tilted her head up to him. Like she wanted it, too. Jake would barely have to move to close the gap between them.

‘I wish I knew what to do in this situation,’ he breathed.

‘Title of your sex tape,’ said Amy.

Jake kissed her. And Amy looped her arms around his neck, kissed him slowly and deliberately and exquisitely, and Jake wished they hadn’t waited so long for this moment. He should have kissed her ages ago – should have kissed her at Shaw’s on the first night they met.

When they broke apart, he leaned his forehead against hers.

‘Jake…’ she breathed.

‘I know,’ he said, ‘You’re with Teddy.’

‘I’m going to break up with him,’ she said. ‘I’d already decided that. I’m making it official as soon as I get back, but we’re basically broken up already.’

‘We probably still shouldn’t make out, right?’

Amy didn’t respond, just pressed her mouth to his again. And Jake slid an arm around her back, deepening the kiss as he pulled her body against his. When Jake pulled away again, he was out of breath.

‘Do you want to go make out in Gina’s bedroom?’ said Amy. She took him by the hand and pulled him across the landing.

‘That sounds super weird,’ said Jake. ‘But also, yes.’

They shouldn’t be doing this. Amy still had a boyfriend, and they were in the home of Jake’s childhood best friend. The whole situation was super weird, but Jake was still super into it. They didn’t even make it to the door to Gina’s room before Jake pulled Amy into him and started kissing her again.

And then they broke apart for just long enough to stumble through the door, and then Amy stopped, and made a face and a little panicked sound.

And Jake turned around just in time to see Charles and Gina springing apart from each other on the bed.

And then he said, ‘Oh my god. Gross. Oh my god.’


	24. The Bad Place

‘Oh my god,’ said Jake, ‘Oh my god.’

‘I think you broke Jake,’ said Amy.

‘I am so sorry,’ said Charles, to nobody in particular.

Gina grabbed her hoodie and pulled it back on, hoping like hell she wasn’t blushing. ‘Have you ever heard of knocking?’ she said. ‘What the hell were you coming in here for, anyway?’

‘Oh my god,’ said Jake again. ‘What _is_ this?’

‘Me and Gina are sleeping together,’ Charles blurted. ‘And I didn’t tell you because it’s just a casual thing.’

‘Since when do _you_ do casual things?’ said Jake. He looked like he was in shock – it would have been funny if Gina hadn’t been so busy being mortified.

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles. ‘I guess after frenching with you at that party I’ve been more open to-’

‘Wait,’ said Amy, looking at Jake. ‘You kissed _Charles_?’

‘ _That’s_ who you made out with?’ said Gina with distaste.

‘It’s not like that!’ Jake protested, ‘We were drunk and it just-’

‘Why am I the only person here who hasn’t made out with Charles?’ Amy sounded slightly hysterical.

‘Let me get this straight,’ said Gina, ‘You realised you were into dudes because of _Charles_?’

‘Hey!’ Charles objected. ‘That’s not fair – and _you’re_ the one who’s been making love to me!’

‘Ew,’ said Gina, ‘What have I told you about saying things like that?’

‘What the _hell_ is going on?’ Gina looked up to see Terry in the doorway, with Rosa and Raymond behind him.

‘Gina and Charles are banging,’ declared Jake. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go set fire to my brain.’ He barged past Terry and out of the room.

‘ _What_?’ said Terry.

Gina sighed. ‘It’s true,’ she said. ‘Charles and I have been hooking up. I will not be taking questions at this time.’ She looked past Terry to Rosa, but Rosa wasn’t meeting her gaze.

Gina glared at Terry until he stepped back to let her through. She needed to get away from everyone for a moment, so she ducked into her mom’s room, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do now. Everyone knew about her and Charles. Gross. It was so much more real now that the secret was out.

And what was Rosa thinking? Was she jealous? Was she judging her? Did she have any right to do either, when she had been sleeping with other people all along?

Fucking Rosa. Who gave her permission to be this important, to mess with Gina’s head like this? And fucking _Charles_ , making everything so complicated.

There was a knock on the door.

‘What?’ yelled Gina.

‘Gina?’ it was Charles’ voice. ‘Are you alright?’

She opened the door. Charles looked so earnest and concerned that Gina felt like a bit of a bitch for what she was about to do. She let him in, and then shoved the door closed behind him.

‘We have to end this _now_ ,’ she said.

Charles nodded. ‘I guess it’s not as erotic now that our sexy secret’s out.’

‘Gross,’ said Gina. ‘That’s not what I meant. I can’t have them think we’re – _shudder_ – dating. And we have to find out that nobody else _ever_ finds out.’

‘I’ll talk to the others,’ said Charles. ‘I’ll ask them not to tell anyone else. But it’s not like they know your friends from Dance Society anyway.’

Gina had to admit he had a point. Well, she admitted it to herself. She wasn’t about to acknowledge it out loud.

‘Are you okay, though?’ said Charles. ‘You seemed like you were freaking out a bit.’

‘Yeah,’ said Gina. ‘Because now everyone knows that I would sleep with someone like _you_. That is so not on brand for me.’

‘Well, if it’s so _off-brand_ for you, then why did you do it?’ Charles snapped. ‘Whatever. I have to go talk to Jake.’ And with that, he flounced out of the room.

Gina didn’t know what to do. She was still burning with humiliation, but now there was a layer of guilt over everything. She couldn’t help feeling like she’d _used_ Charles in some way, because she was jealous of Rosa and Adrian. She’d tried to fight it, but that was how she felt – _jealous_. It was pathetic, the way she’d let Rosa become so important to her.

Gina kicked the door in frustration, and then regretted it as pain shot through her foot. She threw herself down on her mom’s bed.

The thing was, the thing that made it worse, was that somehow she’d started enjoying being with Charles. She had had _fun_ with him. But now she had called everything off, and had hurt him in the process. She gazed up at the ceiling, wishing that everyone would just leave so that she wouldn’t have to face them.

 

Jake was sitting on the kitchen floor when Charles found him. He’d been thinking about leaving, but he hadn’t quite been ready to commit to that, so he’d gravitated towards the kitchen floor as it seemed like the most secluded place in the apartment. His shock had faded, to be replaced mostly with embarrassment at how he had reacted.

‘Hey,’ said Charles, cautiously. Jake was at eye-level with the legs of his corduroy pants. ‘Are you mad at me?’

‘No,’ said Jake, truthfully.

Charles sat down beside him. ‘I’m sorry for not telling you.’

‘Agh, no,’ said Jake. ‘It’s fine. You don’t have to tell me everything – in fact, I’d prefer it if you didn’t! I just freaked out because me and Gina grew up together, you know?’

‘I know.’

‘I saw her _bra_ ,’ said Jake, with a horrified shudder. ‘How am I meant to un-see that?’

Charles laughed. ‘Seriously, though,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry for not telling you. Gina really didn’t want anyone to find out.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Jake, truthfully. ‘Also, is this your first casual relationship?’

‘Yeah,’ said Charles, with the trace of a smile.

‘Good job, man!’ said Jake.

‘Thanks,’ said Charles. ‘But Gina doesn’t want us to see each other anymore.’

‘What?’ said Jake. ‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles. ‘You should talk to her. She was really freaking out about it.’

‘I’ll talk to her,’ said Jake. He didn’t know if he could be any help, but he thought he owed it to his friends. And then he remembered something. ‘Hey, also… not to take away from your moment, but I kissed Amy.’

‘TELL ME EVERYTHING!’ Charles shrieked.

‘Jeez.’ Jake put his hands over his ears, too late. ‘Keep your voice down, man.’

‘Seriously!’ said Charles, a little quieter. ‘Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?’

‘Super weird, but okay,’ said Jake. ‘Well, we were just talking, and it was, like crazy intimate. And then she made a sex tape joke, and it just happened. And she said that she and Teddy are practically broken up already.’

Charles was beaming at him. ‘I knew this would happen,’ he said. ‘Okay, wow, I need to start working on my best man speech.’

‘We’re not getting _married_ ,’ Jake laughed.

‘Not _yet_ ,’ said Charles.

‘We’re not even dating,’ said Jake. ‘It was just -’

They were interrupted by Amy’s appearance in the entryway between the kitchen and the living room.

‘Hey,’ she said, avoiding Jake’s gaze. ‘We’re going back to college, if you guys want to come.’

Jake got to his feet. ‘What about Gina?’

‘She’s refusing to come out,’ said Amy.

Jake walked past them into the hallway, and knocked on the door to Gina’s mom’s room.

‘Gina?’ he said.

‘Fuck _off_ , Jake,’ came her muffled voice.

He opened the door. Gina was sitting on the bed, her hair dishevelled, looking at her phone.

‘I told you to fuck off,’ she said.

‘Everyone’s going back to college,’ he said. ‘You coming?’

‘I don’t wanna see them right now,’ she said.

Encouraged, Jake stepped into the room. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

‘No.’

Jake sat down on the bed beside her. He didn’t press her, he just let her know that he was there. In the end, the others left without them. Gina didn’t want to talk about whatever she was thinking, but she consented to watch a movie together. By the time it finished, it was the early hours of the morning and Gina sloped off to her room, leaving Jake to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, they took the subway back to college.


	25. Most Appropriate

When Terry had suggested returning to Manhattan early, Amy had been relived. There was far too much tension crackling through the apartment. And when Jake had told the rest of them to leave without him and Gina, she had felt relieved all over again, but this time it was tinged with disappointment.

Because of course she was disappointed. She and Jake had kissed, and it had been everything she’d been imaging for so long. But once the rush of it finally happening had faded, her elation had been replaced by guilt. She really should have waited until she had officially ended her relationship with Teddy before starting anything with Jake.

Amy got into bed that night with a renewed determination to break up with Teddy. Partly because she didn’t want him weighing on her conscience anymore, but mostly because she couldn’t remember why she was with him in the first place. After they had agreed that they needed to talk, Teddy had continued to send her increasingly irate messages until Amy had got fed up with it and turned her phone off. 

Over breakfast in the dining hall the next morning, she strategized the break-up. She was going to do it as politely and respectfully as possible, in a neutral public setting. She was going to make notes, write out all the reasons she thought they should break up – should she write out a speech? She should probably write out a speech, right?

‘Amy.’

Teddy was here. Standing in Amy’s dining hall, intruding on her thoughts and her plans and her oatmeal.

‘Hi,’ she said, weakly. Teddy sat down opposite her.

‘So,’ he said. ‘Are we going to talk? I seem to remember you agreeing to that before you started ignoring my messages.’

Oh, god. This was happening, wasn’t it? She and Teddy were about to break up, and Amy hadn’t had a chance to prepare _anything_.

‘Okay.’ Her voice came out as not much more than a squeak.

‘Right,’ said Teddy. ‘Well, lately I’ve been feeling like you don’t want to spend as much time with me.’

‘I want to break up,’ Amy blurted.

‘What?’ said Teddy.

‘Break up?’ Amy said again, faltering under Teddy’s wounded gaze. ‘I mean – oh god, I was going to plan this properly. That’s what I was trying to do!’

‘What are you talking about?’ said Teddy, and then sighed.

Amy tried to get her scattered thoughts together. ‘I’m just… bored,’ she said. ‘Wait, no, that’s not what I mean! I mean that our relationship is like… nothing.’

‘Our relationship means nothing to you?’ said Teddy.

Amy shoved her bowl of oatmeal to the side; she certainly didn’t feel like eating any more.

‘You’re acting like it’s serious,’ she said. ‘But we haven’t even been together for that long. And I just – are you enjoying it?’

‘Is this about Jake?’ said Teddy. Amy felt her face getting hot, betraying her.

‘What?’

‘You heard me,’ said Teddy.

‘This has nothing to do with him,’ she said, trying to keep her voice level. ‘I want to break up with you because I don’t think -’

Teddy cut across her. ‘I know you like him.’

Amy was burning with guilt. ‘Teddy…’ She didn’t know what else to say.

Because she couldn’t deny that she liked Jake. She remembered his mouth against hers and her arms around his neck, remembered how Jake had made her happier in that moment than Teddy had in months of dating. But she felt terrible for breaking up with Teddy like this, and for whatever she’d done to let him know that she liked Jake.

‘I knew it,’ said Teddy, bitterly.

‘But it’s not about him,’ Amy said. ‘Things just aren’t working out between you and me.’

Teddy looked incredibly pissed off. Amy found herself leaning away from him, desperate to get away.

‘Hey, Amy,’ came Rosa’s voice from over Amy’s shoulder, and she felt relief wash over her. ‘This guy giving you trouble?’

‘I’m her boyfriend!’ Teddy protested.

Amy shakily got to her feet. ‘Come on Rosa, we’d better get to class.’

‘It’s Sunday!’ said Teddy.

‘Me and Amy take extra classes,’ said Rosa. ‘Because we’re nerds.’

And she linked her arm through Amy’s, and Amy allowed herself to be steered out of the dining hall.

‘Thank you so much,’ she said, when they were outside.

‘No problem,’ said Rosa, dropping Amy’s arm. ‘If you ever need me to kick that guy’s ass for you, just tell me.’

Amy laughed. And then, since she hadn’t been able to eat her oatmeal, she and Rosa ended up getting breakfast together.

‘Glad you finally ditched that guy,’ said Rosa, over coffee and pastries in the Starbucks across the street.

‘Really?’ said Amy. ‘I didn’t think you had opinions on what I did.’

‘Of course I do,’ said Rosa. ‘And that guy was a waste of space.’

‘Do you think it’s okay to ask someone out right after ending a relationship?’ said Amy, because it was weighing on her mind a little.

Rosa shrugged. ‘Might as well find out.’

Which wasn’t super encouraging, but it was all the validation Amy needed. And besides, she’d waited this long already.

The next day, Jake and Amy were the first of their friends to arrive in the dining hall for lunch.

‘Hey,’ she said. It was the first time they’d talked to each other since Brooklyn. ‘I need to talk to you about something.’

Jake looked nervous. ‘Okay.’

‘So, I broke up with Teddy.’

Jake relaxed, a grin slowly starting to creep onto his face. ‘Okay,’ he said again.

‘And I was thinking.’ Amy took a deep breath. ‘Do you want to go on a date?’

Jake grinned properly. His smile took up his whole face.

‘Noice,’ he said. ‘Smort. Yes. Awesome. That would be… great.’

And for a moment it was just the two of them, both unable to contain their smiles. And then someone said, ‘Hey, is this the start of the line?’ and they realised that they were supposed to be queuing up for food.

Everyone showed up for lunch except for Gina. Amy hoped that this wasn’t the start of another fracture to their friend group, but when she remembered that she and Jake were finally going on a date, she was too happy to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love reading all of your comments, so keep 'em coming!


	26. Take Me Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally forgot it was Tuesday - I've been home from uni for a week now and days of the week have no meaning to me anymore XD

When she heard the knocking at her bedroom door, Gina was on her bed doing homework. Well, she was watching music videos on Youtube, but the word document with her homework on it was open. She sighed and moved her laptop to the side and got up to open the door, thinking that Eleanor had probably forgotten her key again.

It wasn’t Eleanor. It was Rosa.

‘Hey,’ said Rosa. ‘Thought you might wanna hang out.’

‘Sure,’ said Gina, wondering if ‘hang out’ was a code for ‘explain why the fuck you’ve been hooking up with Charles of all people’.

It turned out that it wasn’t; it was code for sex. It was code for kissing Gina until she forgot why it had been awkward between them, for touches that went from reverent to desperate and back again, for noises in Gina’s ear that drove her crazy in the best possible way. And Gina wasn’t thinking about Charles anymore, wasn’t thinking about anything but Rosa’s hands and mouth and skin.

Afterwards, she curled into Rosa’s side. ‘That was amazing,’ she said, ‘You’re crazy talented.’ Rosa brought out the sincerity in her, drove her to _compliments_.

‘Thanks,’ said Rosa, stiffly. She didn’t move, didn’t break the post-coital cuddle, but she didn’t say anything else either. Gina nudged her face into Rosa’s shoulder, breathing in the sweetness of her shampoo. As much as she’d enjoyed her time with Charles, it had been a useless substitute for this.

But she wished she knew what Rosa _thought_ about that. She remembered the way Rosa had avoided her gaze back when everyone found out, the way she and the others had left afterwards. The way Rosa hadn’t talked to her since.

‘You know that me and Charles weren’t serious, right?’ said Gina.

‘It’s fine,’ said Rosa. ‘I don’t care.’ But there was a sharpness to her voice that suggested that, just maybe, she did care.

‘Seriously,’ said Gina. ‘It was just sex.’

She sounded pathetic, justifying herself to Rosa like this. After all, Rosa was screwing that guy with the crazy hair, so she had no right to be upset. But despite the pangs of jealousy she still felt when she thought about him, Gina wanted to let Rosa know that she was more important to her than Charles had ever been.

Rosa sat up abruptly, the heat of her body pulling away from Gina. ‘I really don’t care.’

‘ _Why_?’ Gina burst out, sitting up too. She grabbed a robe, pulled it on as Rosa started getting dressed. ‘We’ve been hooking up since September and we’re meant to be _friends_ as well. I should be able to talk to you about things like this!’

Rosa shoved her feet into her combat boots.

Gina groaned with frustration. ‘Why do you always leave when I try to talk about anything?’

‘I have to go,’ said Rosa. And then she was gone, the door slamming shut behind her.

Gina sighed and collapsed back onto her bed.

 

 

Rosa marched back to her dorm, burying her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket and wishing she had a proper coat. It was too cold to be a badass right now.

She slammed the door to the building on the way in and stabbed the button for the elevator. What she really wanted to do was kick something, break something. She was filled with aggressive energy looking for a way to burst out.

The room, when she got to it, was a mess - on _Amy’s_ side, but spilling over into her own which was inevitable in such a small room. The floor was littered with clothes and shoes, and Amy was in the middle of it, sitting dejectedly half-dressed.

‘What the fuck happened here?’ said Rosa.

Amy looked up at her. She looked the way she did before a test, with wild eyes and hair that had somehow doubled in volume.

‘What are you supposed to wear on a date?’ she asked, desperately.

It might not have been as satisfying as smashing something, but this was a welcome distraction from the hollow feeling in Rosa’s chest. She sat down on her bed. ‘Where are you going?’

‘That’s the thing!’ said Amy. ‘I don’t know! I let Jake choose! Why did I do that? How am I supposed to decide what to wear if I don’t know where we’re going? And what if I look too sexy? Or not sexy enough? What if he thinks I’m boring? What if-’

‘ _Amy_ ,’ Rosa cut across her. ‘Listen to me. Jake already knows you. He knows how you dress, and he knows how weird and nerdy you are. And he _likes that_.’

‘Are you telling to just be myself?’ said Amy. ‘Very original.’

Rosa rolled her eyes. ‘I’m telling you not to freak out over something so stupid. Jake’s probably gonna show up in the same clothes he wore to class today.’

Amy laughed.

‘Okay?’ said Rosa.

‘Yes,’ said Amy. And then, ‘But what should I wear?’

Rosa got up and grabbed a red dress from where it lay discarded on Amy’s bed. ‘This. Boots. Coat. You’ll look great.’

‘Yeah,’ said Amy. ‘Thanks, Rosa. Hey, I can’t believe we’re doing normal roommate things together!’

‘Don’t get used to it.’

‘You’re smiling,’ Amy teased.

‘Shut up,’ said Rosa. She was, though.

She looked at her phone while Amy got changed. No messages from Gina. Rosa felt a twinge of disappointment, even though she knew she should be the one messaging Gina, ideally with some kind of explanation. Or apology.

She really didn’t want to think about that, though.

‘What do you think?’ said Amy, as she dragged a brush through her hair. It was still frizzier than normal, but it worked.

‘You look fierce,’ said Rosa.

‘Thanks,’ said Amy. ‘I’m sorry about all this mess – I’ll clear it up when I get back.’

‘It’s chill,’ said Rosa.

Amy picked up her purse. ‘See you.’

‘See ya,’ said Rosa. ‘Have fun.’

And then she was alone, her only company her thoughts and her lack of messages. Rosa checked the time – it was still early. She messaged Adrian.


	27. Jake and Amy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the longest chapter ever, bitches! Enjoy!

Rosa had been wrong: Jake had changed clothes for their date. He was wearing a plaid shirt under a leather jacket, as well as a tie, which was weird and dorky and adorable. He positively beamed when he saw Amy, his face creasing into dimples.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Did you get a haircut?’

He ran a hand over his hair, a little self-consciously. ‘Yep.’ It was shorter on the sides now, swept sideways into curls over his right eyebrow. It was very cute.

‘I like it,’ said Amy.

‘You look _really_ nice,’ said Jake.

‘Thank you.’ They were both just standing there, smiling like idiots. ‘Where are you taking me?’

‘It’s a surprise,’ Jake said, mischievously. ‘This way.’

 They got the subway up to central Manhattan and, as they walked out of the subway station, Amy slipped her hand into Jake’s.

‘Is this a bowling alley?’ she said, as Jake led her to a neon-lit building.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Well, yes. But we’re not going bowling. I mean, we can if you want, but that’s not the reason we’re here.’ With the hand that still held hers, he led her through an archway into a cavernous room filled with coloured lights and electronic music.

Amy laughed. ‘Did you bring me to an arcade for our first date?’

‘Yes,’ said Jake, looking at her nervously. ‘Was it a crazy-awesome idea, or was it super lame?’

‘I think it’s awesome,’ said Amy. ‘The question is: which game am I gonna beat you at first?’

Jake put a ten dollar note into a machine to turn it into change, and his pockets jingled with coins as he walked. But it didn’t stop him from beating Amy at Dance Dance Revolution, which she retaliated against by beating him at Mario Kart. And then they played two rounds of air hockey, and Amy kept letting herself get distracted laughing at Jake’s antics and consequently only won one of the games.

And then she pulled him behind a Tetris console and kissed him, and he laughed against her mouth and kissed her back. And then they played the game of inserting pennies into a machine to push more pennies out, and Jake won a small plastic ring with a dinosaur on it.

‘Amy Santiago,’ he said, mock-seriously. ‘Will you do me the honour of accompanying me to dinner?’

‘Yes,’ she said, laughing. ‘A million times yes.’

He slid the ring onto her little finger – the only one it could fit on.

‘I know a great place,’ he said. ‘It’s just ‘round the corner.’

They walked down the street together, and Amy wished this night could go on forever. Jake stopped walking, and Amy said, ‘Here?’ incredulously, because they were standing outside a hotel.

‘Trust me,’ said Jake, and he led her into the lobby. Amy felt out of place surrounded by gilt and marble, but she hung onto Jake’s hand as he strode confidently across the room towards a heavy red curtain.

‘What are we doing?’ she said, and then they stepped around the curtain into a grungy, dimly lit burger restaurant. The walls were coated with scribbled writing and photos, the only menu was a hand-written sign beside a window to the kitchen, and rock music was playing in the background.

‘What do you think?’ said Jake, looking adorably proud of himself.

‘I like it,’ she said, and leant over the kiss him on the cheek. ‘You plan a good date.’

They got burgers, fries, and orange soda, and sat at a wooden bench to eat them.

‘You didn’t have to pay for everything,’ said Amy.

‘I thought it made sense seeing as you let me pick where we went,’ said Jake. ‘You can pay for the next one if you like – hey, should we draw up a rota?’

‘I know you’re making fun of me,’ she said. ‘But there’s nothing wrong with rotas!’

Jake laughed, his eyes sparkling. ‘Maybe we can just take it in turns.’

They stayed long after they’d finished eating, chatting about anything and everything. By the time they were on the subway back to college, holding hands again, it was past ten o’clock.

‘Did you have a good time tonight?’ Jake said as they emerged from the subway station.

‘Of course I did,’ said Amy. ‘Tonight was perfect.’

Jake grinned. God, Amy loved that grin. ‘‘Tonight was perfect’ – title of your sex tape,’ he said.

‘That… wasn’t an insult at all,’ she said. Jake was blushing.

She was aching to kiss him again, so she said, ‘Walk me home?’

But it turned out that she needn’t have bothered, because Jake took her face in his hands and kissed her right there and then. And for a moment it was chaste and a perfectly appropriate thing to be doing while standing outside a subway station, but it felt so good that Amy didn’t want to stop kissing him, and she let herself get lost in the feeling of his lips, his tongue, his teeth tugging at her bottom lip.

She broke away for just long enough to say, ‘I feel like we shouldn’t be doing this in public,’ and then she started kissing him again.

‘We should go back to your dorm,’ Jake mumbled into the side of her mouth.

‘Yours is closer,’ said Amy.

Jake pulled away from her properly. ‘You’re right,’ he said, and he took her by the hand, interweaving her fingers with his as they set off towards his dorm.

They kissed again in the elevator, sloppy in their desperation to be close to each other. When the doors opened, Amy giggled as she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. She couldn’t wait to make out with Jake properly, to get her hands on him, but when they got to his room they found Charles there.

‘I can leave if you two need privacy!’ he said, looking disturbingly happy.

‘It’s fine, we’ll go to my room,’ said Amy, already taking Jake’s hand to lead him back down the corridor. ‘Rosa’s never there anyway.’

So they walked the couple of blocks to Amy’s dorm, and they kissed in the stairwell, and again in the corridor, and when they fell through the door of her room it was gloriously empty. They kissed again, but Jake pulled away so that he could discard his jacket and shoes. Amy did the same, and then they were kissing again.

Amy pushed Jake onto her bed and climbed into his lap, kissing him with her hands on either side of his face. And Jake ran his hands up the outside of her thighs, pulling her closer until their bodies were pressed together. She could already feel his erection pressed against her thigh, and it only made her want him more badly.

He pulled her down on top of him, and they both giggled as they tried to twist round and get on the bed properly.

‘We were being _so smooth_ up until now,’ said Jake.

Amy started kissing him again, and then she kissed his neck, sucked on it until she left a mark. And Jake wrapped his legs around her waist – with her old boyfriend it had always been her doing the leg-wrapping, but she liked it this way a lot.

She tugged at the knot of his tie, loosening it until she could pull it off and undo the top button of his shirt. She kissed the base of his neck.

‘Can I take your shirt off?’ she mumbled into his skin.

‘Heck yeah, you can,’ said Jake. Amy pulled away again, fumbling at the buttons. Why was it so much harder to undo buttons on someone else’s clothes? Her heart raced as she exposed inch after inch of Jake’s skin.

‘Are you nervous?’ he said, his voice low. ‘We don’t have to do anything that you’re not comfortable with.’

‘Hey,’ she said. ‘I should be the one saying that. I’m more experienced than you.’

Jake laughed. ‘I’m pretty sure it can apply to both of us.’

He unwrapped his legs and propped himself up on his elbows so that she could slide his shirt off his shoulders. Amy ran her hands over his chest, feeling the warm softness of his skin.

‘You’re so hot,’ she said, and then felt herself blushing.

‘No, _you’re_ hot.’ Jake sat up properly so that he could discard his shirt, and leant in to kiss Amy again. As they kissed, she felt his hands inching up her thighs, slipping under the hem of her dress. ‘Wanna take this off?’ he said.

Amy wondered whether the dress had been her best outfit choice, whether she might have felt more comfortable in jeans and a top so that she could get undressed incrementally. As it was, when she lifted her arms and allowed Jake to tug her dress off over her head, it left most of her body exposed. And her sheer black tights didn’t feel especially sexy.

Jake didn’t look like he cared though. He pulled her back down onto the bed with him on top her, kissing her neck, her collarbone, her chest, and the top of her breast above her bra. And then she took him by the back of the head, brought his mouth back to hers. It felt incredible: their whole bodies pressed together, his bare chest on hers, their legs interlocking. Soon their kisses became more frantic, their breath ragged, and Amy slid her hand down Jake’s back to grab his butt.

‘That feels so good,’ he moaned against her mouth, grinding his hips against hers. And that was almost too hot to handle - Jake’s thigh rubbing between her legs and his erection pressed against her hip. She sighed, pushing her hips up against him, tangling her free hand in his hair.

And then Jake pulled away, rolled off her.

‘You okay?’ she said.

‘Yep,’ said Jake. His chest was rising and falling with rapid breaths. ‘I’m just _really_ turned on. I didn’t wanna… you know. Just give me a sec.’

Amy giggled, and leant over to kiss him again. He ran his hand up over her hip, and then broke the kiss to say, ‘Do you wanna stop? Or can I take these off?’

‘You can take them off,’ said Amy, suddenly feeling a little shy again. Jake kissed her, pressed her into the bed, and then pulled away to tug at the waistband of her tights. She lifted hips, helping him to roll them down her legs.

‘How do you put these things _on_?’ said Jake, laughing.

And then he kissed her stomach, her thighs, and Amy forgot her nervousness in her need for him to touch her. He ran his fingertips over her through her underwear, and stopped to ask her permission again before he took them off.

Amy was reconsidering her assumption that she was more experienced than Jake. He knew how to use his hands and his mouth in a way that her high school boyfriend never had, and Amy couldn’t believe that this was finally happening, that Jake was in her bed making her feel like _this_. It wasn’t long before she was coming completely undone underneath him.

‘That was… wow,’ she said, breathlessly.

‘Good?’ he said, and she didn’t need to open her eyes to know that he was grinning.

‘Very good,’ she said. ‘Title of your… wow.’

‘Did you underestimate my talents?’ he teased.

‘Oh, shut up,’ laughed Amy, and pulled him into another kiss. She slid her hand down his body to the front of his jeans, revelling in the gasp he let out when she touched him.

She broke the kiss, pulled away enough to undo his jeans.

‘You’re shaking,’ he said, and for once there was nothing teasing about his voice. ‘We can stop. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.’

‘I _do_ want to,’ she protested. Jake kissed her shoulder. ‘I’m kind of nervous,’ she admitted. ‘I’m not as good at this as you are. I haven’t had that much practise.’

At any other time, he would have turned that into a joke. But now all he said was, ‘I don’t care how much practise you’ve had. I just wanna be with you, Ames.’

Amy ran her hands over his chest again, feeling how the softness of it gave way to bony shoulders and surprisingly toned arms.

‘I like your arms,’ she said.

‘Thanks,’ he gave her one of his big, stupid grins that she loved so much. ‘I grew them myself.’

Grinning like that, halfway undressed and with tousled hair, he was irresistible. So Amy pulled him into another kiss, and then moved her hands to his jeans again. He helped her to pull them off, and then, her hands still shaking slightly, she reached for the waistband of his underwear.

And then she was raking her eyes over Jake’s exposed body, taking in every detail of him as he lay back with closed eyes and one hand lazily running through his hair. Amazing. She lay back down between his legs.

And she was still nervous, still worried that she wouldn’t be as good as he had been to her, but Jake threw back his head and said, ‘Oh, _god_ , Ames.’ And after a while she sat up a little more, working him with her hand so that she could watch him screw his face up with pleasure.

Afterwards, she crawled into Jake’s arms and listened to his pulse becoming less rapid with her head on his chest.

‘To be clear,’ he said, ‘You have nothing to be nervous about.’

She kissed him. ‘Well, that was certainly a successful date.’

‘Let’s have another one,’ he said. ‘Soon.’

‘Noice,’ said Amy, which made Jake crack up.

‘Hey, that’s _my_ line!’

She kissed him again. By the time they’d cleaned up, got dressed, and stopped for goodbye kisses at the door, it was well into the night. But Amy lay in bed trying to replay the entire evening in her mind, trying to hold onto those memories so that she could keep them forever. She was so happy and wired that she was still awake when Rosa stumbled in during the small hours of the morning.


	28. Adult Life Skills

Jake and Amy arrived to lunch holding hands.

‘Is this a thing now?’ said Gina, feigning disinterest.

‘Yup!’ said Jake. He looked ridiculously happy; they both did.

‘You guys are so cute!’ Charles positively squealed.

Gina had decided to tolerate Charles. The shock of their relationship seemed to have worn off for everyone – they were old news now. And Charles was being surprisingly unweird about the whole thing, happy to go back to being casual friends who sat at the same lunch table, so Gina thought it was easiest to put up with him rather than doing anything to remind people what had happened.

She made a point of taking selfies with attractive people at parties and dance society and posting them on her snapchat story, though. Just to remind people that she had good taste really.

Looking at her phone, she saw a message pop up from one of them: a hot but dumb guy called Jason that she knew from dance society.

 **Jason** : Saw this and thought of you, dawg

The message was accompanied by a link, and when Gina clicked on it she saw a very familiar face.

‘Bitch, look at this!’ she said. ‘I found a video of Terry playing the saxophone in his high school band. And he’s wearing a _beret_.’

Charles, Jake, and Amy gathered around her, looking at the video that was captioned ‘beret boy plays sax’.

Jake gasped dramatically, and then dissolved into giggles.

‘What?’ said Amy.

‘Beret boy plays sax,’ said Jake, still giggling and grinning delightedly. ‘Title of Terry’s _sax tape_.’

‘Oh my god,’ said Amy, trying to hide her own laughter. ‘That is so bad.’

When Terry arrived for lunch, they all teased him mercilessly.

‘Shut up,’ he said. ‘Little Terry was talented _and_ stylish.’

When Rosa arrived five minutes later, she avoided Gina’s gaze. She didn’t talk much, even when Jake showed her the video of Terry, and she left a good ten minutes before anyone else. Gina tried not to let it show that it bothered her, tried to compensate by being louder and harsher to everyone else.

And, for the next few weeks, that’s how things were. The six of them ate lunch together, sometimes dinner, and went to Shaw’s together on Friday nights. Sometimes Terry’s roommates joined them, sometimes his girlfriend, sometimes Jake’s friends, sometimes Gina’s. She and Charles were never alone together, but she was surprised how much she was beginning to enjoy his company as part of a group.

Amy and Jake were an insufferable couple. It was all hand-holding and shared smiles and straight-up making out in front of everyone else.

‘They’re _adorable_ ,’ Charles insisted. ‘They’re my OTP.’

Sometimes, when they were being all coupley and Charles was fangirling over them, Gina would catch Rosa’s eye and they would share a moment of _can you believe these idiots._ But then Rosa would look away, hiding the trace of a smile that crossed her face, and Gina would be angry and upset and embarrassed all over again.

This had been going on too long. Gina needed to get over Rosa, for real this time. Like an _adult_. She almost wished she still had the option of Charles to help her do it.

 

As the semester went on, assignments were piling up and professors were starting to talk more and more about finals. Nevertheless, Jake was stupidly happy.

‘You really take me to all the best date locations,’ he said, grinning despite his sarcasm.

He and Amy were in the laundry room on the ground floor of Jake’s dorm building, because she had decided to fulfil her promise to teach him how to do laundry properly.

‘I can’t believe you made it halfway through freshman year without doing laundry,’ she said. ‘If I wasn’t so grossed out, I’d almost be impressed.’

‘You should go for impressed,’ said Jake. ‘There’s a lot of technique to it… strategic trips home, persuading Charles to come with me and then persuading him to do all the work… owning a lot of socks.’

Amy shook her head, laughing. Jake kissed her, sliding his hands to her waist.

‘Stop it,’ said Amy, trying and failing to look serious. ‘Laundry-room PDA is so inappropriate.’

But Jake didn’t pull away, and after a moment Amy started kissing him again. Even now that they had been together for a month, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

Amy pulled away again, giggling. ‘ _Seriously_ ,’ she said. ‘Okay, so: laundry. Is all of this colours, or do you need to sort out the whites?’

‘Uh.’ Jake tugged his laundry basket away from Amy. ‘You probably don’t want to look too close at that.’

She wrinkled her nose; it was adorable. ‘Too right I don’t. Okay, put the detergent in here.’

‘So I’ve been thinking,’ said Jake, as he bundled his clothes into the laundry machine. ‘I’m definitely gonna come out to my mom over spring break.’ He paused, picking up a loose sock and shoving it into the machine before slamming the door shut. ‘That’s not weird, is it? Talking about me being bi now that we’re dating?’

‘Okay, you want this setting for colours,’ Amy said. ‘And why would it be weird?’

Jake spun the dial on the machine, and then pressed the ‘on’ button. ‘Man, laundry is so much less complicated than I thought it was.’

Amy didn’t make a move to get up, so Jake stayed kneeling on the concrete floor of the laundry room beside her as the laundry machine began to whirr.

‘Why would it be weird?’ Amy said again. ‘And also, of course it isn’t complicated.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jake. ‘I guess maybe I thought you’d get scared I was gonna leave you for a dude or something? Is that crazy?’

‘It’s not crazy,’ said Amy, reaching out to take his hand. ‘But you never need to worry about that, because I don’t think that at all. And I know I don’t understand this stuff the way Gina does, or Rosa, or… Raymond-’

‘Or Charles,’ Jake supplied.

‘But you can talk to me about it whenever you want,’ said Amy. ‘You can talk to me about anything.’

‘You’re the best, Ames.’ Jake kissed her on the cheek.

‘And I think it’s great that you’re ready to come out to your mom,’ she added.

Jake couldn’t stop smiling. His heart felt like it just might explode from happiness.

‘Thanks for teaching me how to do laundry,’ he said.

‘I’m hoping you have at least _some_ adult life skills,’ she said, wryly.

‘I wouldn’t get your hopes up.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention Terry playing the saxophone all the way back in chapter 5 so that I could make a 'title of your sax tape' joke? Yes. Yes I did.


	29. Girl Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my personal favourite chapter. Writing Rosa is so much fun! Hope you guys enjoy it :)

Rosa was sick of this whole Gina situation. She wanted them to go back to the way they’d been at the start of the year. Or maybe she wanted something else.

Rosa wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted, and that annoyed her. What she was certain of, though, is that she wanted something to change. Because the way her life was going at the moment kept making her want to break things.

‘We’re done,’ she said to Adrian one night.

‘What?’ he said. ‘Why?’

‘Because I don’t want to be in a relationship with you anymore.’

She considered this to be more of an explanation than he deserved, so she left it at that and went home. If they had been serious she might have added ‘sorry’, but they weren’t.

Adrian sent her a series of increasingly angry and pathetic messages, so Rosa blocked him. She didn’t feel much better without him, but she also didn’t feel worse, so she figured ending things with him had been the right thing to do.

She still missed Gina though. And she still didn’t know what to do about that.

There were very few people who knew anything about Rosa’s life, which was good except for when she needed advice about something. The obvious person would be Jake because at least he was bearable, but he was closer with Gina than he was with her, and that seemed like it could get complicated.

So, when Rosa spotted Amy and Raymond in the Starbucks near the dorms, she decided to take this opportunity.

‘Can I talk to you guys?’ she said.

‘Sure,’ said Amy, looking a little confused. Which made sense, because Rosa rarely asked Amy to talk to her.

Rosa sank into the seat opposite her. ‘I’ve got a problem.’

‘What is it?’ said Amy. ‘Are you asking for my help? Ooh, are we about to do _girl talk_?’

Rosa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Because, as little as she wanted to admit it, she really needed Amy’s help.

‘We will endeavour to help you with your problem,’ said Raymond.

‘It’s about a girl,’ said Rosa.

‘Which girl?’ Amy looked so excited; Raymond looked mildly intrigued.

Rosa took a deep breath. ‘Gina.’

‘Oh,’ said Amy. ‘I thought you meant it was about a girl, you know, romantically.’

‘It is,’ said Rosa. ‘Me and Gina are… a thing.’

‘Woah,’ said Amy. ‘Since when?’

‘Since September.’

‘ _What_?’ said Amy, looking comically shocked. ‘You’ve been dating Gina since _September_? How did I not know that? I’m your _roommate_.’

‘We’re not… dating,’ said Rosa. ‘I don’t know what we are. But we’ve been having sex. Since September.’

‘But you’ve both been sleeping with other people.’

Way to state the obvious, Amy. ‘Yeah.’

Amy thought about it for a moment. ‘So what’s the problem?’

‘I think Gina wants to date. Be a couple.’

‘And you don’t?’

‘I think I do,’ said Rosa. ‘But I screwed up. She was talking about her feelings and I panicked.’

‘Are you… scared of feelings?’ said Raymond.

‘Whatever,’ said Rosa. ‘We don’t have to talk about this.’

‘No, talk about it!’ said Amy.

‘I don’t want to,’ said Rosa.

‘Come on,’ said Amy. ‘Let me and Raymond help you. We’re great with girls!’

Rose eyed her suspiciously. ‘Neither of you like girls.’

‘I worded that badly,’ said Amy. ‘But both of us are in successful relationships!’

‘You and Jake have been together like a month.’

‘Firstly,’ said Amy, ‘It’s been five weeks. And, secondly, it’s been five _successful_ weeks.’

‘And Kevin and I have been together for three years,’ Raymond added. ‘Very successfully.’

‘ _Exactly_!’ said Amy.

‘Fine,’ said Rosa, before either of them started getting into details about how ‘successful’ their relationship was. ‘I like Gina. But I don’t know how to tell her that without bringing out all those… emotions.’

Raymond nodded, thoughtfully. Amy looked mildly outraged. ‘You can’t run away from emotions,’ she said. ‘Emotions are good!’

‘Rosa is right,’ Raymond said. ‘Emotions can be… daunting.’

‘Exactly.’ Rosa looked at Raymond – he was turning out to be more useful than Amy.

‘But,’ he said. ‘I have learnt that people respond favourably when you acknowledge their feelings.’

‘Ugh,’ said Rosa.

‘Hey, why don’t we roleplay?’ said Amy.

‘Sounds stupid,’ said Rosa.

‘Just try it!’ said Amy. ‘Let’s pretend that I’m Gina, and you’re you.’ She put on a terrible impression of Gina. ‘Oh, dang, Rosa! You and me should, like totally date!’

‘That’s not what Gina sounds like.’

‘Yeah, impressions aren’t really my thing,’ admitted Amy. ‘But what would you want to say to her?’

Rosa sighed, and then decided that she might as well try it. This was what she’d come to Amy for, after all, and she’d already embarrassed herself. She could tolerate a bit more.

‘Gina,’ she said, trying to imagine Gina in front of her rather than Amy. ‘I like you. I… ugh, this is dumb.’

‘No, you were doing great!’ said Amy. ‘Carry on!’

‘Okay.’ Rosa took a steadying breath. ‘I like you. I like your face, and I like your… personality. I like your confidence. I like how you don’t care what people think about you because you know you’re worthy of love and respect and if people don’t want to give it to you that’s their problem. I think you’re cute, and funny, and kinda baddass.’

Rosa had almost forgotten where she was, had almost forgotten that she was just talking to Amy and Raymond. All she could think about was Gina.

‘…and I want to be your girlfriend,’ she continued. ‘I want to hold your hand, and I want to take you on dates. I want people to know that we’re together. I want to see each other during the summer. I want to come to your dance competitions. I want to be together. Properly.’

When she stopped talking, she was breathing like she’d just finished running.

‘Wow,’ said Amy. ‘Are you… crying?’

‘No,’ said Rosa, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill.

‘That was… beautiful,’ said Raymond.

Amy looked at him incredulously. ‘Are _you_ crying?’

‘It was… moving,’ he said, dabbing at his eyes.

‘Stop crying,’ said Rosa. If Raymond cried, it might set her off for real. ‘This has nothing to do with you.’

‘I think you should say all of that to her,’ said Raymond.

‘I agree,’ said Amy. ‘You’ve gotta be honest about how you feel.’

Tell Gina how she _felt_. This was crazy. Rosa hated it.

But it just might work.


	30. Like A Boss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just straight-up forgot to post this yesterday XD Here it is, enjoy!

‘Can I ask you something?’ said Amy.

‘Is it ‘how did you become so sexy?’’ said Jake.

They were lying in Jake’s bed, eating pastries smuggled up from the dining hall as the morning sun streamed through the window. Charles was spending the weekend with his mom, so Jake and Amy had had plenty of luxurious alone time. They had slept curled together in the narrow bed, waking up to sleepy kisses.

‘No dumbass, this is a serious question,’ said Amy. ‘Well, serious-ish.’

‘Oh,’ Jake put down his bear claw and turned towards Amy. ‘Hit me.’

‘How come you haven’t lost your virginity? Like, obviously there’s nothing wrong with that!’ she cringed, and Jake just laughed, because she was adorable. ‘I just mean, you’re obviously experienced in the other stuff. So… how come?’

Jake thought about it for a moment. Amy sat up a little straighter, reminding Jake just how cute she looked in the t-shirt he had lent her. ‘I guess I never got ‘round to it?’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well – do you want me to give you a rundown on my ex-girlfriends, or is that super weird?’

‘Is it relevant?’ said Amy wryly.

‘Yeah,’ said Jake. ‘I just… you asked, and I want to explain it properly.’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Go on.’

‘Right.’ Jake wished he felt less weird about this – it wasn’t like Amy was going to be jealous, he knew that much. And she didn’t have any reason to be. ‘So there was Jenny Gildenhorn, but we never did anything, so that doesn’t really count. But she was my first girlfriend, and then she broke up with me at my Bar Mitzvah and it sucked.’

‘Sounds like a bitch,’ said Amy, laughing.

‘So, after that I dated Lisa – first kiss,’ Jake continued. ‘And then Emily – also just kissing. And then Antonia – second base. And then I dated Emily _again_ , and that time we did some, you know, hand stuff.’

‘Okay,’ said Amy, like she was still waiting to see where he was going with this.

‘And then senior year I dated Cameron, and I guess that’s when I learnt all that third base stuff. And we probably would have lost our virginities together, but she cheated on me. And after that I dated a couple other people, but I never stayed with them long enough to have sex with them. Oh, and also there was Sofia and Frank, but that was just making out. And Charles.’

‘I still can’t believe you made out with Charles,’ said Amy.

‘Hey, that would be a good thing for you to say next time we play ‘never have I ever’!’ said Jake. ‘You could get me _and_ Gina.’

‘So was the point of you telling me your whole romantic history just to say that you never stayed with one person long enough to lose your virginity?’

‘I guess,’ said Jake.

‘Okay.’ Amy took a bite of her pasty, and then said, ‘So do you… want to?’

‘I mean, yeah,’ said Jake. Amy laughed. ‘But I’m not in a rush,’ he continued. ‘And I never want you to feel like you should be doing something you’re not comfortable with.’

Amy kissed his cheek. ‘That goes both ways.’

‘ _Me_ ,’ he said. ‘Get it? Because I’m bi!’

‘I got it,’ she giggled. ‘But what I was going to say is, I want to have sex if you do.’

Jake kissed her; she tasted like pastry. ‘Noice. Smort. I mean, yes, great. We should do that.’ His heart fluttered with excitement and nerves at the thought.

‘I have to get on birth control first though,’ said Amy, and Jake felt like an idiot because he hadn’t even thought of that.

‘Sure, coolcoolcool,’ he said. ‘It seems unfair that you have to deal with all of that. I mean, that girls do.’

‘I thought that maybe I could get it sorted out over spring break?’

‘Cool,’ said Jake again. ‘I mean, yeah, if you want.’

Amy laughed, and pulled him into another buttery kiss. And, for a while, they forgot about breakfast.

 

 

Jake went home for spring break with a plan to come out to his mom.

‘You’re gonna do great,’ Amy said, as she hugged him goodbye at the bus station. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

He was taking it one step at his time: his mom first, and then maybe his nana if he felt brave. His dad could wait until he bothered to show up.

When he arrived at the door, Jake felt nervous, which was stupid because he wasn’t going to come out to his mom _yet_. But the thought of it was hanging over him ominously, and he tried to steady his breathing as he rang the doorbell.

And then the door opened, and Jake found himself looking at his dad.

‘What the hell are _you_ doing here?’ Jake said.

‘Hi, Jake,’ said his dad. ‘Long time no see!’

‘ _Yeah_ ,’ said Jake. Like, no shit.

He stepped into the apartment, setting his bag down by the door.

‘Is that Jake?’ said his mom from the next room.

‘Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?’ Jake demanded. His mom stepped into the room, holding out her arms to hug him. He pulled away from her. ‘ _Seriously_.’

‘Jake,’ she said. ‘I know this is a lot to take in, but your father and I have been seeing each other again.’

‘It’s just casual,’ said his dad.

‘What?’ said Jake. And then, ‘You know what? I don’t want to know.’

He grabbed his bag, and stormed off to his room.

 **Jake** : my DAD is here

 **Amy** : What? Why?

 **Jake** : Apparently my parents are back together? Or something? What the fuck is up with that?

 **Jake** : Also this really screws up my coming out plans

 **Amy** : What are you going to do?

 **Jake** : idk

 **Amy** : It’s alright if you need to take some time to re-evaluate your plan. There’s no rush to come out to them.

 **Amy** : Or you could take this as an opportunity to tell them both at once.

 **Amy** : I’ll be sending you moral support whatever you decide.

Okay. He could do this. He could be sensible about this. He took a deep breath, and walked back into the living room. His parents were sitting on the couch – the last time he’d seen them sitting on the couch together, he’d been twelve. Fuck that.

‘Hey guys!’ he said. ‘Mom, remember when Dad cheated on you? That was crazy, right? Also, I like dudes now!’

So much for being sensible about this, then. Jake internally cringed at himself, trying not to think about having to admit all of this to Amy later.

‘I’m sorry?’ said his mom.

‘Uh,’ said Jake. He was still fired up, but he’d lost his train of thought. ‘I’m bisexual? And I’m mad that you’re dating Dad, because he sucks!’

‘Can we talk about one thing at a time?’ said his Dad.

‘Like how you cheated on Mom, you cheater?’ Jake snapped. ‘Or how I’ve barely seen you in six years?’

‘Jake,’ said his mom. ‘Sit down.’

‘I don’t want to.’

She sighed. ‘Okay then. Look: we wanted to tell you about this before, but we thought it would be best to do it in person.’

‘You could come see me,’ he said. ‘College is half an hour away.’

She ignored him. ‘It’s not serious. But your father and I are different people than we were six years ago, and we wanted to try again. We’re just seeing how it goes.’

‘Okay,’ said Jake. He was feeling a little deflated after his outburst.

‘And we can visit you at college if that’s what you want,’ his mom continued. ‘But we thought that was the last thing you’d want – us embarrassing you in front of all of your friends.’

She might have had a point there. ‘Okay,’ he said, again. ‘I still think this is super weird, but at least I’m not living here while it happens.’

‘That’ll do for now,’ laughed his dad.

‘Honey, do you want to talk about the other thing you mentioned?’ said his mom.

‘Uh, yeah, coolcoolcoolcoolcool,’ said Jake. ‘No doubt, no doubt.’

‘You’re bi now?’ said his dad. ‘I thought you said you had a girlfriend.’

‘Um,’ said Jake. ‘I don’t understand why you think those things conflict.’

‘What your dad means,’ said his mom. ‘Is that we love you no matter what.’

‘That’s not what he was saying at all!’ Jake pointed out. ‘But thank you. I love you too, _Mom_.’

‘I’m just saying,’ his dad said. ‘Most of the bi guys I’ve known were just using that as a stepping stone to being _properly_ gay.’

‘Okay, I’m going to my room,’ said Jake.

 **Jake** : I did it!!!

 **Jake** : Came out like a BOSS

 **Amy** : Oh my gosh, I’m so proud of you!

They talked for hours, about their parents, about high school, about what they wanted to do after college. Jake missed Amy already.


	31. Talking About Feelings

Charles got back from spring break a few days early. His intention was to spend the time studying, but what he actually ended up doing was wondering around the city visiting internet-famous food establishments. Rainbow bagels, it turned out, were overrated.

 **Facebook** : Rosa Diaz has sent you a friend request

A few months ago, Charles would have been delighted. Now, he was just slightly confused. He accepted the request, and a message came through almost immediately.

 **Rosa** : Hey can we talk sometime? Like go for a drink or something?

And then another one a moment later.

 **Rosa** : To be clear: not a date

 **Charles** : Sure :) I know some great food places if you want?

 **Rosa** : No. Shaw’s. Thursday at 8.

 **Charles** : Okay then :)

 **Charles** : Looking forward to it!

 **Charles** : :) :) :)

 **Rosa** : You can stop sending messages now

Charles was perturbed. And slightly worried that Rosa was trying to get him alone so that she could yell at him. He hadn’t done anything yell-worthy as far as he knew, but Rosa was scary. When Thursday at eight came around, he was a little nervous. Okay, he was quite a lot nervous. He got to Shaw’s before Rosa and bought a drink while he waited for her.

‘’Sup.’ Rosa slid into the seat next to him.

She was still beautiful. Her hair was wild, her eyebrows were sharp, and her lips were painted dark red. It was easy to remember why he’d thought we was in love with her.

‘’Sup,’ said Charles, and then regretted it. He wasn’t really a ‘ _sup_ kind of person.

‘You’re friends with Gina, right?’

‘Not really,’ Charles admitted. ‘We were just casual lovers.’

‘Gross,’ said Rosa. ‘I don’t want to think about that.’

‘Jake’s way better friends with Gina than I am,’ said Charles.

‘I already talked to Jake,’ said Rosa. ‘And Amy. And Raymond.’

‘So I’m the last person you’ve talked to about this?’

‘There’s still Terry.’ Rosa sipped her drink.

‘What are we actually talking about?’ said Charles.

‘I’m gonna ask Gina to be my girlfriend.’

‘ _What_?’ said Charles. ‘Oh, that makes so much sense! Can I just say, you both have fantastic taste.’

‘Still weird,’ said Rosa.

‘Sorry,’ said Charles. He was grinning. The thought of Rosa and Gina - the girl who had rejected him and the girl who had so recently broken up with him - together shouldn’t have made him so happy, but it did. Something about it seemed so much more _right_ than he would have been with either of them. ‘Ooh, did you want to talk to me because you want Gina advice? Because I know _all_ the things she likes.’

‘Absolutely not,’ said Rosa. ‘But I wanted to check… you two, you’re done, right?’

‘We are.’

‘And that’s what Gina wants?’ Rosa persisted.

‘She made it pretty clear,’ Charles said, surprising himself with how much he didn’t mind. ‘I don’t think she ever liked me that much. She was always weird about it.’

Rosa nodded, like she was satisfied with that answer.

‘So, you and _Gina_?’ said Charles.

‘Why are you smiling like that?’ Rosa said, suspiciously.

‘Because you two are gonna be so cute together,’ said Charles. Things were starting to make sense to him. ‘I mean, you’re already cute together. I can see how much she likes you.’

He remembered the Halloween party: Gina making brooding comments as she watched Rosa and Adrian together, getting drunk with Charles of all people. He had been to wrapped up in himself to notice at the time, but now he was seeing it in a new light.

‘Really?’ said Rosa.

‘Of course,’ said Charles. ‘She’s always looking at you. She’s always trying to make you smile. Gina wants everyone to like her, and she has to work a bit harder with you, and I think she actually likes that. She respects you.’

‘Interesting,’ said Rosa.

‘You think I’m interesting?’ Charles said, hopefully.

‘Sure,’ said Rosa, like she was humouring him. ‘Look, I’m planning something for Gina, and I want everyone to be there. Gina loves an audience.’

‘Of course,’ said Charles.

‘I’ll text you the details.’

There was a pause, in which they both sipped their drinks, and then Charles said, ‘Why did you ask me here? You could have just texted me. I mean, I’m flattered, obviously.’

‘Look,’ she said. ‘You and me have never really been friends. But… I’m trying to get better at feelings and shit.’

‘I’m great at feelings,’ said Charles. ‘I have so many! That’s like, my thing.’

Rosa smiled, just barely. ‘It is. And it’s a stupid thing, but it’s yours.’

‘Thanks?’

‘Are we cool?’ said Rosa.

‘Yeah,’ said Charles. ‘I’m sorry about, you know, being obsessed with you.’

Rosa nodded. ‘I’m sorry for being harsh.’

‘Great,’ said Charles. ‘This has been amazing. I’m glad we’re friends now.’

‘Okay, we’re done here.’ Rosa put down her empty glass.

‘Okay,’ said Charles, cheerfully. ‘I was going to invite you to get food with me, but I guess I’ll be getting octopus balls by myself.’

Rosa made a disgusted face. Charles didn’t mind – he was used to it.

‘See ya,’ she said.

Charles sat there a moment longer, finishing his drink.

‘Excuse me?’ He looked up to see a girl standing shyly beside the table. She was breathtakingly beautiful. ‘I was thinking about getting octopus balls too,’ she said. ‘If you wanted some company?’

 

Three hours later, Charles stumbled into his dorm room, unable to wipe the delirious smile off his face. He flung himself onto his bed, and it was only then that he registered Jake and Amy on the bed beside his.

‘I should go,’ said Amy.

‘Aww,’ said Jake. ‘Stay. Charles doesn’t care.’

Amy laughed. ‘I need to sleep. I’ve got class tomorrow.’

‘Bye, babe,’ said Jake.

Charles was still grinning, gazing up at the ceiling and replaying the events of the evening in his mind. The door closed, softly.

‘What?’ said Jake, laughter in his voice.

‘A girl called Genevieve bought me octopus balls, and now I’m in love with her,’ said Charles.

‘Ah, octopus balls and love, coolcoolcoolcool.’


	32. First Something

**Facebook:** Raymond Holt has sent you a friend request.

 **Facebook:** Kevin Cozner has sent you a friend request.

‘Jake! Jake, wake up, look at this!’

‘Hmm?’ said Jake. He wasn’t actually asleep – Amy could tell that the way he had his head pressed into her shoulder was a conscious thing. He rolled onto his back, blearily opening his eyes. ‘What is it?’

‘Raymond _and_ Kevin just added me on Facebook!’ It was Saturday morning. Charles had spent the night with his new girlfriend, and Amy had slept wrapped in Jake’s arms.

‘Maybe they’re gonna ask for a foursome,’ Jake said, rubbing his eyes.

‘What?’ said Amy.

‘What?’ Jake echoed. ‘No! That would be crazy.’

Amy unlocked her phone and accepted both friend requests.

‘I finally got them to like me!’ she said. ‘Somehow.’

 **Raymond:** Would you care to join me and Kevin for coffee this afternoon? – Raymond Holt

Amy almost squealed.

‘Can I come?’ said Jake, eagerly.

‘Shut up,’ said Amy. ‘They invited _me_.’

 **Raymond** : You are welcome to bring Jake, if you would like. – Raymond Holt

‘Ha!’ said Jake. ‘They like me too! Also, why does he sign all his texts like they’re letters? Is he secretly eighty-two?’

‘Maybe I’ll just tell him you’re busy,’ Amy mused. Jake grabbed her phone. ‘Hey, give that back!’

Jake laughed and rolled away from her. ‘Hey, Raymond,’ he said, pretending to type. Amy tried to pry her phone out of his hand, but Jake held it away from her. ‘Jake would love to join you for coffee, but _I_ am too busy sorting my pens by colour.’

‘Shut up!’ said Amy, but she was laughing too much to protest properly. ‘My pens are already sorted!’

Jake rolled on top of her, his whole body vibrating with laughter. ‘ _Please_ let me come with you,’ he said in a wheedling voice.

‘Ugh, fine,’ Amy said in mock-annoyance. ‘If you give me my phone back.’

They went for coffee with Raymond and Kevin, and Jake talked about criminology and about how he wanted to be a detective someday and about Die Hard, and the others looked bemused but let him talk.

‘But it’s like, my dad left and my mom had to work,’ Jake was saying, and Amy could barely remember how he had got there. ‘What was I _supposed_ to do with my time? So that’s why I learned how to skateboard, which is how I got this dope scar on my - hey, did you know my parents got back together?’ He directed this last comment at Raymond and Kevin.

‘I did not,’ Raymond said.

‘In fact, I knew very little about your parents until today,’ said Kevin. ‘But now I believe I know everything.’

‘Well, they’re back together,’ said Jake. ‘And it turns out my dad doesn’t believe in bisexuality. I came out to them over spring break – my mom was cool with it, though.’

‘I think that was a brave thing to do,’ said Kevin. ‘Now, Amy, have you seen the Dutch Masters museum at the Met?’

 

Afterwards, they went back to Jake’s room.

‘I think that went well,’ said Jake, throwing himself onto his bed.

‘Uh-huh,’ said Amy. She lay down beside him. ‘You nailed it.’

‘Title of…?’

‘I think you can do better than that,’ Amy teased.

‘Well that’s definitely _not_ the title of my sex tape,’ Jake said, and kissed her. Which, of course, turned into more kissing, and then making out, and then the slow removal of clothes.

Amy kissed Jake’s shoulder, his chest, his stomach. She was a bit obsessed with Jake’s torso.

‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Are we gonna…? You know. Have sex.’ She looked up at him, hands resting at the fastening of his jeans. ‘I mean like _sex_ sex,’ he clarified.

‘Yeah, if you want to,’ Amy said. There was a flutter of excitement in her stomach: it wasn’t going to be her first time, but it was going to be her first _something_. The first time that really mattered.

‘Coolcoolcoolcool,’ said Jake. ‘No doubt, no doubt.’

‘Is that a ‘yes’?’ said Amy.

‘Yep,’ said Jake.

She kissed him stomach again, and unbuttoned his jeans. They discarded the rest of their clothes, and then they were kissing again with nothing between them. Jake’s hand wandered up her thigh, slipping between her legs.

‘Jake, that’s so good,’ she breathed. ‘Do you have a condom?’

‘Uh-huh,’ he said. He took his hand off her, but didn’t move.

‘Are you okay?’ said Amy.

‘Yep,’ Jake said. But he shifted away from her slightly. ‘I just…’

‘Are you nervous?’ Amy said, gently.

‘No!’ he said. ‘ _You’re_ nervous. Of how _great_ it’s gonna be.’

‘ _Jake_ ,’ she said. ‘We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.’

‘I _do_ want to,’ he said. He looked away from her, running a hand through his hair. ‘But maybe… not right now?’

She shifted so that they were in full-on cuddling mode rather than mid-makeout, and kissed his shoulder. ‘It’s okay. We can do it whenever you’re ready.’

‘Ugh,’ said Jake. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘You don’t have to say sorry,’ Amy insisted.

If part of her was disappointed, it was nothing to the part of her that didn’t care at all. Because she wanted Jake to be happy, wanted him to be well and truly ready when they did take that step.

‘But we got all psyched up for it!’ he said. ‘You got on the _pill_.’

‘I’ve got six months’ worth,’ said Amy. ‘And it doesn’t matter, anyway. I only want to do it if you want to do it.’

Jake smiled at her, not his big goofy grin but a smile that was all soft eyes and dimples. He didn’t say anything, but he looked at her like she was the only thing in the world worth paying attention to.

‘What?’ she said.

‘I love you,’ said Jake. And those words coming from him felt like something so much bigger and more important than sex would have been, like a first time that nothing else could compare to. Like Amy’s whole life had just changed, because now she was living in the era where she knew Jake loved her.

It also felt like they’d been saying it all along.

‘I love you too,’ Amy said.

‘Noice,’ said Jake.

‘Very noice,’ Amy agreed. She kissed him, softly and tenderly.

And Jake brought a hand to the back of her head, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. When they broke apart, he was grinning. ‘We can do some _other_ sexy timez stuff though, right?’

Amy rolled on top of him. ‘Oh, we definitely can.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realised that if I ended Jake and Amy's storyline with them having sex, then I would be supporting Gina and Rosa's virgin-shaming earlier in the story. I thought it was more important to focus on their relationship than on arbitrary milestones, you know?  
> Also, can you BELIEVE there's only two more chapters to go? I sure can't.


	33. A Hot-Ass Couple

Gina never got nervous. At least, in theory. She was good at dance, and blessed with a natural propensity for rhythm, and she looked fucking fantastic in her turquoise leotard and leg warmers. She just wished someone would tell all of that to her heart, which was beating way too fast.

‘Look at all these people!’ Jason said, peering through the stage curtains. He’d already been told not to be several people, but he didn’t care.

‘Yeah, almost as many as in your dance crew,’ Gina said. She feigned boredom, looking at her nails because she didn’t have her phone.

‘Oh dip!’ said Jason. ‘My girlfriend’s here!’

‘You have a girlfriend?’ Gina stared firmly at her nails, trying not to wish she had a girlfriend there to watch her too. Or just anyone.

‘Uh-huh!’ Jason beamed at her. ‘She’s called Janet, and she’s a straight-up hottie. She makes my heart breakdance.’

‘Get away from there, Jason,’ the dance society leader hissed as she walked past. ‘We’re starting in a minute!’

Gina went to find the rest of her dance troupe - Floorgasm - who all looked slightly less fabulous than her in their neon leotards.

‘Ready?’ said Chelsea.

‘To dance? Always,’ said Gina, but her insides were twisting with nerves.

She stood in the wings waiting as the society leader went out and introduced the show.

‘First up, bringing you an explosive street dance: it’s Dance Dance Resolution!’

‘ _Bortles_!’ Jason yelled for no apparent reason, high-fiving Gina as he ran past followed by the rest of his thirty-person dance troupe. (There was actually only twenty-eight of them, because two of them had managed to get arrested the night before the show.)

They were pretty good, actually. Some of them weren’t entirely in sync, but the choreography was good and Jason in particular was an impressive dancer, moving all over the place in his red and gold tracksuit. Gina made sure to high-five him again when he arrived back in the wings.

She waited as one act after another went out on stage. If anyone had asked her, she would have said they were all terrible, but they were good enough to intensify her nerves. And then, after what felt like forever, it was here turn.

‘And now, I give you: Floorgasm!’

‘You got this, dawg,’ Jason said.

Gina walked out across the expanse of stage, the rest Floorgasm behind her. They formed a line down the centre of the stage, and with Gina in the front it felt like every pair of eyes in the room was on her. She looked into the dark auditorium and the glaring spotlights, scanning the dimly lit audience. She wasn’t expecting to see anyone she knew. She certainly wasn’t expecting to see Rosa.

She was sitting a few rows from the front, watching Gina intently. When Gina caught her eye, Rosa smiled at her encouragingly. _Smiled_ at her. For a moment Gina couldn’t move, couldn’t remember what she was supposed to be doing, couldn’t focus on the music or the dance or anything that wasn’t Rosa’s smile.

And then she snapped out of it. And she danced. She felt the beat of the music pounding through her like the blood in her veins, slipped easily into every practised move. She basked in the spotlight, in the attention of everyone watching. And, whenever she could, she sought out Rosa in the crowd.

It wasn’t until the dance was over and Gina was breathlessly holding her final pose that she realised Rosa wasn’t alone. Jake was there, and Amy, and Terry, and Charles, and even Raymond. All of them, all of Gina’s weird, dorky, _amazing_ friends, watching her dance. All of them, applauding for her.

When Gina walked off the stage, she felt like she was walking on air. She couldn’t stop grinning, and even pulled the rest of Floorgasm into a group hug. She felt so good that she almost didn’t care how well they did.

And then Rosa was there. Actually, everyone was there, but the only person Gina could focus on was Rosa. She was holding a sprawling bunch of flowers, and she was smiling, that broad, genuine smile that Rosa gave out so sparingly.

‘You were amazing,’ she said. ‘These are for you.’

‘Why?’ said Gina. She reached out for the flowers, feeling slightly dreamlike. ‘Why are all you guys here?’

‘They’re our audience,’ said Rosa.

‘What?’ Gina was still trying to catch up.

Rosa took a deep breath. She wasn’t smiling anymore – instead, she was looking intensely at Gina. ‘I came here because I wanted to tell you… that I like you. A lot. And I was an idiot before because I was feeling things, and I _hate_ feeling things. Ugh, this was so much better when I practised it.’

Somehow, Gina’s heart was pounding harder than it had been when she was dancing. ‘No, keep talking,’ she said.

‘I wanna date you,’ Rosa said. ‘Be girlfriends, or whatever. I don’t want it to be just sex, and I don’t want it to be casual, and I don’t want it to be a secret. I wanna keep doing dumb stuff like come to your competitions and bring you flowers.’

When she stopped talking, she looked almost nervous. Almost… vulnerable.

And then Gina stepped forward and kissed her, the hand still holding the flowers wrapped around Rosa’s waist. Gina couldn’t believe Rosa had said all of that – could barely believe Rosa felt so strongly about her. It felt like a dream she never wanted to wake up from.

Rosa cupped Gina’s face in her hands, kissing her in a way that was all at once as tender as everything she had just said and as firm as the way she had said it. The kiss, in front of so many people, was a declaration all of its own.

Everyone cheered.

‘Sorry, guys,’ Charles said. ‘Rosa and Gina are my new fave couple.’

‘I’m offended,’ said Amy. ‘But also, _same_.’

‘Me too,’ Jake said.

‘Terry loves love,’ said Terry, dreamily.

‘I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s cuuuuute!’ said Jason.

When Gina and Rosa broke apart, they were both smiling.

‘I really like you, too,’ Gina said.

‘You look really fucking hot in that leotard,’ Rosa said. Gina kissed her again, because she could do that now.

‘Um, Gina?’ Jake cut it. ‘I think they’re announcing the scores. You might wanna listen.’

Gina pulled reluctantly away from Rosa, but Rosa wrapped an arm around her waist and held her at her side as they listened to the scores.

Dance Dance Resolution won, even without two of their members. Gina figured that Jason deserved it, and she gave him a delighted fist-bump. Some other chicks beat out Floorgasm by two points for second place, but Gina was too happy to care. Rosa’s arm around her meant more than a medal any day.

Afterwards, Gina ditched the rest of dance society in favour of celebratory drinks at Shaw’s with her friends. It felt like a million years since they had hung out there on the first night of college.

‘I love this place,’ Amy said, as they approached the bar. ‘I’m gonna miss it over the summer.’

‘Can I see some IDs?’ the bartender said – he was a different guy than usual.

Everyone froze, looking at each other guiltily. They’d been so used to being able to come to Shaw’s without getting IDed they had almost forgotten it was illegal.

‘Uhh,’ said Amy.

‘I left it in the… uh…’ said Jake.

‘Here.’ Rosa handed a driving license to the bartender, who looked at it and nodded.

He looked pointedly around at the rest of them. ‘Can I see _everyone’s_ IDs?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Rosa. ‘My friends are all idiots.’ She grabbed Gina’s hand and led the rest of them out of the bar.

‘What did you do that for?’ said Gina. ‘I could have flashed him! It would totally have worked!’

‘You _do_ have a fake ID!’ said Amy, looking impressed.

Rosa smiled. ‘Yep. Also, I have a secret stash of booze in our room.’

So they all went back there, crowding onto Rosa and Amy’s small beds. Gina sat with her legs in Rosa’s lap, drinking a whisky and coke, surrounded by her friends, and she was pretty sure she’d never felt happier.

‘Hey, Rosa?’ said Amy.

‘Yeah?’

‘Are you gonna finally tell us what instrument you play?’

‘ _Fine_ ,’ said Rosa, rolling her eyes. ‘I used to play the flute.’

‘Noice,’ said Jake. ‘Now tell us your major!

‘I’m majoring in… pre-med,’ said Rosa.

‘Oh my god.’ Amy was beaming. ‘Are you… a _nerd_?’

‘Shut up,’ said Rosa. She was smiling – she was probably breaking her record for most smiles in one night.

Afterwards, Rosa walked Gina back to her dorm room.

‘This _is_ what you want, right?’ she said.

‘Oh my god, yes,’ said Gina. She took Rosa’s hand. ‘I’ve wanted this for ages.’

‘Good,’ said Rosa. ‘I’m sorry about… you know. Everything.’

‘Me too,’ said Gina. And then, ‘I can’t believe you went full PDA for me.’

‘Worth it,’ Rosa said.

‘Totes,’ said Gina. ‘We blessed everyone with the opportunity to see us kiss. You and me are a hot-ass couple.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, amiright? XD  
> Thanks for such a great response to the last chapter, you guys are awesome!


	34. Endings and Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter. As Gina would say, oh dang!  
> A small shout out is necessary to the IRL people who have listened to me talk about this fic, and, of course, a HUGE shout out is necessary to all of you. If you've read all 34 chapters, or left me a kudos, or left me a COMMENT, thank you a tonne!  
> Oh, and shout out to me, for finishing this despite historically not being good at finishing things.  
> So here's the last chapter - hope you enjoy it!

‘Right, that’s done,’ said Amy, stetting down her pen. ‘You just need to sign it.’

‘Cool.’ Rosa grabbed the pen and the housing paperwork from her and scribbled her signature on it.

Amy had been surprised when Rosa asked her if she wanted to be roommates again next year, but had agreed. Afterall, Rosa was her closest female friend. And, Amy suspected, she was Rosa’s closest friend besides Gina.

‘I’ll hand this in,’ said Amy, casting her eye across the room. Her side was neatly packed up into labelled boxes, whereas Rosa’s was more chaotic than ever. ‘It looks like you still need to pack.’

She walked to the housing office, surrounded by the bustle of parents and kids moving out of dorms. After handing in the paperwork, she took a detour to Jake’s dorm on the way back.

Charles opened the door to her. ‘Hey!’ he said, stepping back to let her in.

Jake and Charles had somehow made even more mess than Rosa. Jake was sitting on the bed, chucking plaid shirts and textbooks and half-empty bottles of soda into boxes, seemingly at random. He beamed and Amy.

‘Oh my god,’ she said. ‘Is this your packing strategy? I should have brought my label maker…’

‘Babe,’ said Jake. ‘It’s fine. I’ve just got to stuff all this into my mom’s car, and then it can go back to being a mess once I get home. There’s no _point_ in making it neat.’

‘I can’t believe I’m attracted to you,’ Amy sighed. Charles was grinning as he sorted beige sweaters, but Amy ignored him. She joined Jake on his bed. ‘I was thinking,’ she said. ‘Do you want to come visit me in the summer? My mom would probably make you share a room with one of my brothers. But… it would be good. I don’t want to wait until September to see you.’

Jake kissed her.

‘Is that a yes?’ said Amy.

‘Big time,’ Jake grinned. ‘Hey, maybe you could come stay with me, too? My mom wouldn’t care.’

‘Let’s do it,’ said Amy. They kissed again. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too,’ said Jake.

‘You guys are the best couple ever,’ said Charles. Amy had clearly done too good a job of ignoring him – she had forgotten he was there. ‘Well, second best. Me and Genevieve are _the_ best.’

 

Gina loaded the box into the back of the car.

‘Are you sure you don’t need help?’ her mom said.

‘I’m good,’ said Gina. She didn’t want her mom hanging around her dorm.

When she got back to her room, Eleanor was standing on her bed taking down posters.

‘Hey, man.’ said Eleanor. She sat down to roll a poster up. ‘I just wanted to say before we leave for the summer, I’m sorry for being such a shitty roommate.’

Gina had never heard Eleanor say something sincere before, let alone apologise for anything. It was weird. It was like Raymond smiling, or Charles being cool.

‘Why are you suddenly being nice?’ she said.

Eleanor continued packing her stuff. ‘This has been a super crazy year for me, you know?’

‘Yeah,’ said Gina, even though she was beginning to realise that she knew nothing about her roommate.

‘Well, I’ve been trying to be a better person recently,’ Eleanor continued. ‘Maybe I can be nicer to my next roommate. Hey, where are you living next year?’

‘Off campus,’ said Gina. ‘I’m moving in with one of my friends.’

One of Terry’s roommates was graduating from his postgrad programme, so Gina was moving in with him and Raymond and the others. She was delighted that she’d be getting a room to herself. (More space to practise her dance moves.) (Also, Terry was fun. And Raymond wasn’t so bad either.)

‘Noice!’ said Eleanor. Gina almost laughed. She couldn’t believe that Eleanor was the sort of person who said _noice_ and she was only just learning this now.

‘So you’re going home today?’ said Gina. ‘Where are you from?’

‘Arizona,’ said Eleanor. ‘But there’s… not much there for me. So I’m going to stay with my boyfriend over the summer.’

Gina picked up another last box. ‘Well, it’s been super weird talking to you. I’ve gotta take this down.’

‘Okay,’ said Eleanor, cheerfully.

When Gina got back downstairs, she found her mom chatting to a short man in a beige shirt. He looked unnervingly familiar. Gina shoved the box into the car, and when she stepped back she saw Charles standing beside her.

‘I think my dad has a crush on your mom,’ he said.

Gina looked over at her mom and the short man – _of course_ he was Charles’ dad.

‘We need to end this right now,’ she said.

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles, dreamily. ‘I think they’re kind of cute.’

‘It’s _weird_ ,’ Gina insisted. ‘What if they started dating? What if they got _married_? Ugh!’

Charles’ face lit up. ‘We could be stepsiblings!’

‘Please don’t make me think about that,’ Gina groaned.

Charles just grinned. ‘I’ve gotta go say goodbye to Jake before I leave!’

 Gina rolled her eyes. ‘Have a good summer, weirdo.’

‘Bye, Gina!’ said Charles.

 

Charles went back to his dorm room for the last time, this tiny breeze-block room where he had met his best friend, had his first casual relationship, and eaten a whole lot of Eastern-European potato chips. Amy was gone, leaving only Jake and his haphazard pile of belongings.

‘I’m gonna miss you so much,’ said Charles.

Jake laughed, but he got up and pulled Charles into a hug. ‘Dude, we did great,’ he said. ‘We survived freshman year!’

‘I had a great roommate,’ said Charles.

‘So did I,’ said Jake. When he let go of Charles, he said, ‘I’m even glad we made out in that closet? Is that weird? That sounded less weird in my head.’

‘I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about that.’ He knew what Jake meant, though. In some weird way, it had brought them closer together.

Jake checked his phone. ‘My parents are here – I gotta go say goodbye to Amy!’

Charles hugged him again. ‘Bye.’

‘Bye, bud,’ said Jake.

‘Don’t go making any new best friends over the summer.’ He was only half joking.

‘I’ll try not to,’ said Jake. ‘See ya in September!’

 

‘Ugh,’ said Gina. ‘I can’t believe you finally confessed your love for me and we immediately have to leave.’

‘We both live in Brooklyn,’ Rosa reminded her.

‘It’s still unfair!’ said Gina.

‘You’re such a drama queen,’ said Rosa. Gina kissed her. Rosa was never going to get tired of kissing her.

‘It’s one of my many talents,’ said Gina.

‘When can I see you?’ said Rosa.

Gina curled into her side, playing with a stray strand of Rosa’s hair. ‘Tomorrow.’

‘Desperate,’ said Rosa.

‘I’m just sparing _you_ the embarrassment of being desperate.’

‘That’s adorable,’ said Rosa. They kissed again, and then Gina slid off the bed.

‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘Ugh.’

Rosa got up too, kissing Gina one last time. ‘See you tomorrow.’

 

The last thing Jake did before he went home was say goodbye to Amy, on a sidewalk packed with college kids and their parents.

‘I’m gonna miss you,’ he said, pulling her into a hug. He breathed in the familiar scent of her shampoo. ‘ _So_ much.’

‘It’s not gonna be that long,’ said Amy. ‘If we see each other twice we’ll never have more than a month apart… and maybe we can meet somewhere in between as well?’ She kissed him. ‘I’m going to miss you too.’

He kissed her again, and then again. It was so easy to lose himself in her, to get caught up in kissing her. But then his phone started buzzing with a thousand texts – his parents telling him it was time to leave.

‘Bye,’ Amy said.

‘I miss you already,’ Jake complained, dotting kisses around her face.

‘ _Jake_.’ She giggled. ‘Your parents are waiting for you. Go, it’s fine. It’s only gonna be a month.’

‘Right,’ he said. ‘Only a month. Coolcoolcoolcool.’ He kissed her, one last time. ‘Bye, Ames.’

And then he let go of her, and he walked to his mom’s car. He looked back to wave to Amy, and she waved back, and Jake wondered how he had got so lucky. And then he got into the backseat of the car, surrounded by bags and boxes of his stuff, and they made their way through the traffic and back to Brooklyn.

 

_Gina created group “The squad”_

_Gina added Rosa, Jake, Amy, Charles and Terry_

**Jake** : Noice

 **Terry** : Yesss Terry loves group chats

 **Jake** : Hey, I just had an idea! Do you guys wanna come to Pride with me?

 **Rosa** : I’m in

 **Charles** : OMG I would love that!!!

 **Gina** : You guys can’t pin me down

 **Jake** : …ima take that as a yes

 **Amy** : Can Terry and I come for support?

 **Jake** : Hell yeah!

 **Jake** : OMG – even better idea!!

 **Gina** : What??

 **Amy** : Oh no, I’m nervous XD

_Jake added Raymond and Kevin_

**Jake** : You guys will come to pride with us right?

 **Gina** : Ugh Jake you can’t just add people to the gc!

 **Raymond** : Kevin and I will be attending the Pride parade anyway, but it would be pleasant to see the rest of you there. – Raymond Holt

 **Kevin** : Agreed. – Kevin Cozner

 **Jake** : The squad is going to pride, bitches!!!

 **Amy** : You realise that Pride is in two weeks, right?

 **Jake** : So… see you guys soon?


End file.
